Texas A&M
16-4, 4-3
Missouri
11-10, 1-7
No. 10 Aggies Hold Off Tigers, 65-55
Feb 03, 2010 | Women's Basketball
Feb. 3, 2010
Missouri Box Score in PDF Format 
COLLEGE STATION, Texas (AP) - Danielle Adams was supposed to play for Missouri.
Instead she led Texas A&M to a win over the Tigers on Wednesday night.
Adams and Tanisha Smith, who are both from Kansas City, scored 19 points each and No. 10 Texas A&M got a 65-55 victory over Missouri. The win ended a two-game skid for the Aggies and was their sixth straight win over Missouri.
Adams signed with Missouri out of high school but did not qualify academically and played at a junior college before coming to A&M.
"There was a lot of emotion there for me, knowing (Missouri) coach (Cindy) Stein for so long and now playing against them was emotional," Adams said.
The Tigers (11-10, 1-7) never led in the second half, but got within one point several times.
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The last time Missouri had a chance to take the lead, Texas A&M (16-4, 4-3) scored 10 straight points, including four in a row by Tyra White to extend the lead to 61-50 with a minute remaining.
The Aggies made four free throws after that to secure the win.
Stein talked to Adams for a few minutes after the game. She said her former recruit has improved greatly since high school.
"I think she's playing extremely well," Stein said. "She plays smart. She's playing defense. I don't think I've ever seen her play defense before."
Jessra Johnson had 15 points for the Tigers who have dropped three in a row.
Smith had seven steals and White added eight points and had six rebounds for A&M.
Adams had to sit for large portions of the game after getting two quick fouls in the first half and getting her fourth with about 13 1/2 minutes left. She returned for the last 6 minutes of the game in her first meeting against Missouri.
A little excitement came when the 6-foot Smith tried a dunk on a fast break with about 30 seconds remaining. She sailed toward the basket and grabbed the rim, but the ball slipped out of her hand before she could put it in.
Smith, who said she has been able to dunk for about two years, was also excited to play her hometown team.
"I think there was a lot of emotion for all the Kansas City kids," she said of herself, Adams and White. "We all three were recruited to Missouri and not to (criticize) our home state, but I think we made a good choice by coming here. It's our style of play out here. We get after it."
The Aggies led by seven before Missouri scored six straight points to cut the lead to 43-42 with 12 minutes remaining. Texas A&M answered with five straight points by Kelsey Assarian to push the lead to 48-42 midway through the half.
Stein said it was hard to keep getting so close, only to see A&M pull away repeatedly.
"Their defense makes it tough," she said. "Nothing is easy. The one thing I love about our team is our kids are really competitive and they're fighting and scrapping and we're trying to get one. Every one is hard but we're going to show up every game and do the best we can."
Texas A&M went on a 5-0 run, all on points by Adams, to open the second half and push its lead to 33-27.
Adams scored 10 of Texas A&M's first 12 points but got her second foul soon after and went to the bench with about 13 minutes left in the first half and didn't return until after halftime.
The Aggies led by five for most of the first half and were up by that margin after a layup by Tanisha Smith with 1 1/2 left in the first half. The Tigers scored four straight points after that to trail 28-27 at halftime.
Christine Flores added 11 points for Missouri.
Texas A&M was without starting point guard Sydney Colson who is out with a left leg injury.
The Aggies travel to fourth-ranked and undefeated Nebraska (20-0, 7-0) for a Saturday, Feb. 6 showdown between two top 10 teams in Lincoln, Neb. The game will be televised nationally on Fox Sports Net.
POSTGAME NOTES
• For the first time this season, Texas A&M used the starting lineup of Tanisha Smith, Adaora Elonu and Danielle Adams (1-0). Carter made only her fifth career start and only her third in Big 12 Conference play.
• With the victory, the Aggies won their sixth-straight meeting with Missouri to improve to 9-7 in the all-time series between the two schools. The win snapped back-to-back losses against league competition and marked their second versus a Big 12 North foe this season next to a 68-44 win over No. 20 Iowa State on Jan. 13.
• Danielle Adams registered her 17th double figure game of the season with a game-high 19 points against Missouri, the school she originally signed with out of high school, but did not qualify academically. Adams has reached double digits in all but one Big 12 game played this year.
• Tanisha Smith made a career-high seven steals in a season-high 39 minutes of action versus the Tigers. She also matched Adams with a game-high 19 points which marked her 16th double-digit game of the season and first in double figures in the last three ballgames. She attempted her first collegiate dunk with 30 minutes left in regulation after making her seventh steal of the contest on a fast break.
• Starting point guard Sydney Colson did not play against Missouri due to a stress reaction injury in her left fibula. It was her first missed game since playing in all 91-straight contests since her freshman campaign in 2007-08.
POSTGAME QUOTES
Texas A&M Head Coach Gary Blair
On the game and Missouri ...
"(Toy) Richbow and (RaeShara) Brown. It's not their stats, but how hard they play. Both of those kids are both seniors, played like seniors and stayed in the ballgame tonight. Even though they had 19 turnovers, their guard play was excellent. They were slipping screens and hurting us outside. We were doing a poor job on their post players. They were doing a good job of running their offense and getting it done in the end. (Christine) Flores, who attended our basketball camps, has turned into a very good Big 12 player. (Jessra) Johnson and (Shakara) Jones are just good, solid players. They would start for any team in this league. This reminds me of the SEC when it was at its peak. If that's (Missouri) your bottom team, there isn't really a bottom. Cindy (Stein) is doing an excellent job. She has juniors and seniors who are making good decisions out there. They are not through upsetting teams this season. They are going to win more ballgames. That's one team you don't want to play in the conference tournament. When we were running our stuff with Danielle (Adams) in the game, we were as good offensively as we have been all year. We were able to get defensive boards. Give our kids a little credit. We outrebounded this team by nine and we had to fight for every one of them. They did a lot better job than they did the other night against Oklahoma State. I was pleased with the game and our end-of-game situations were a whole lot better than some of the games we lost and even won this season."
On Sydney Carter who replaced the injured Sydney Colson at the point ...
"Carter is just a warrior. I told her that, `your job today is not to score. Your job is to be a creator.' Her four assists and one turnover was the difference in the ballgame. Colson has a hot spot above the ankle on her left fibula. It's a stress reaction right now. She will be a (Baylor's) Melissa Jones situation - a game-to-game decision."
Texas A&M Senior Forward/Guard Tanisha Smith
On the difference in the Missouri game in comparison to the Oklahoma State game on Sunday ...
"We had two-or-three steals in the last two minutes of the game and we were denying the wings. We were having a hard time against their post players. Just not letting them catch the ball was good for us. For me personally, my shot was falling tonight and I've been working hard on it. I've stayed after practice late this week just working on my shot and getting back into my groove. What got me easy buskets tonight was my defense."
Texas A&M Sophomore Guard Sydney Carter
On playing Nebraska on Saturday ...
"Our defense will have to be on point. They are a defensive team as well. Our defense is going to be a key matchup for us. Unlike our last game (against Oklahoma State), we are going to have to attack the paint instead of settling for jump shots. We have to find who on our team is going to be the leader. It will definitely come down to the wire."
Missouri Head Coach Cindy Stein
On the game ...
"For us, the last three minutes killed us. A&M's defense was really tough, especially in the last three minutes of the game. They made the plays they needed to. It was a hard-fought game - your typical Big 12 game, where it's going to be physical. They outslugged us today."
On getting the game within one point and not being able to turn the corner ...
"It's tough. Again, their defense makes it tough. Nothing is easy. The one thing I love about our team is that our kids are really competitive. They are always fighting and scrapping. We are trying to get one (a win) and every one is hard. We are going to show up every game and do the best we can."
Missouri Senior Forward Jessra Johnson
On the game ...
"We came into the game wanting to play man-to-man. Everyone had a good matchup. We are a physical team and they are a physical team. I thought it was a great game. I just think we had a couple of mental errors and not coming to the ball completely. We were standing and watching and not rebounding."
