Jan. 28, 2011
Complete Release in PDF Format 
#6/5 TEXAS A&M (18-1, 6-0) at #1/1 BAYLOR (18-1, 5-0)
Game #20
January 30, 2011 • 12:00 p.m. (CT)
Reed Arena (12,292)
College Station, Texas
Television: FSN
Radio: Texas A&M Sports Network (KZNE 1150 AM)
Series History: Baylor leads 44-35
Internet: Free Live Statistics and Live Audio at www.AggieAthletics.com
GAME PREVIEW
One of the most anticipated matchups of the Big 12 Conference season gets underway Sunday, Jan. 30 as the No. 5 Texas A&M women's basketball team (18-1, 6-0) faces No. 1 Baylor (18-1, 5-0) in its second straight battle of Big 12 unbeatens and its third consecutive top 20 matchup. The Aggies and the Lady Bears tip off at noon (CT) at Reed Arena in a game that is televised nationally on FSN. Sunday will mark just the third game in league history between two top 5 teams. Baylor and A&M were picked to finish first and second in the Big 12 Preseason Poll. The Aggies are coming off of a pair of key conference road wins at No. 20 Iowa State and No. 12 Oklahoma and are riding a program-best, 12-game winning streak. The Lady Bears have won 15 straight and when they hit the court Sunday it will have been eight days since their last game. The winner of Sunday's matchup will claim sole possession of first place in the Big 12 standings.
TICKET INFORMATION
All reserved and public general admission seats have been sold for Sunday's matchup. A record student crowd is anticipated for Sunday's game. On Sunday at 11:30 a.m. any tickets not used by Texas A&M students will be sold to the public. Those tickets would be general admission and are $7 for adults and $4 for youth. Those who have purchased general admission seating are encouraged to arrive early to ensure a seat location. Public doors will open at 11 a.m. General admission seating is located behind the student section in 126-130 (single letter rows only) and is also available in 201-202, 207-219, and 224-225. Accessible seating in general admission is available on a first come, first served basis.Texas A&M students with all-sports options will be admitted at the north entrance beginning at 10:45 a.m. on Sunday. Valid TAMU Student ID and all-sports option required for entry. Texas A&M students without an all-sports option may purchase a student walk-up ticket for $4 by presenting their student ID at the Reed Arena Box Office beginning at 10 a.m. Sunday.
GAME PROMOTIONS
Prior to the game Sunday, all kids (eighth grade and under) that come to the Kids Court will receive a FREE Texas A&M sling backpack. The Kids Court begins at 11 a.m. in the women's practice gym at the Cox-McFerrin Center for Aggie Basketball.
ON THE TUBE
Texas A&M will appear on the tube before a television audience for the seventh time this season. Play-by-play announcer Brent Stover and color analyst Brenda VanLengen will call the action live on Fox Sports Net with the game being carried nationally on Fox Sports Arizona, Fox Sports Detroit, Fox Sports Florida, Fox Sports Houston, Fox Sports Midwest, Fox Sports North, FSN Northwest, Fox Sports Ohio, FSN Pittsburgh, FSN Rocky Mountain, Fox Sports Southwest, Fox Sports Wisconsin, Prime Ticket, Sportsouth, Comcast California, Comcast Chicago, Comcast Philadelphia and MSG Plus.
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A LOOK AT THE LADY BEARS
Baylor will play just its fourth road game of the season on Sunday against Texas A&M. With a 2-1 road record and its only loss at UConn in front of 12,628 fans early in the season, a sell-out crowd could be part of the recipe to bring down the top-ranked team in the nation. The Lady Bears rang in the New Year by moving up to the No. 1 spot in the polls and have remained there for four weeks. The Aggies will be Baylor's toughest test in conference play so far as their smallest margin of victory against a league foe was a 13-point win against Texas Tech on Jan. 22. BU is led by 6-foot-8 center Brittney Griner with 22.2 points and 7.8 rebounds per game. Look for freshman guard Odyssey Sims (13.3 ppg) and senior guard Melissa Jones (9.5 ppg, 6.9 rpg) to contribute as well on the offensive end. Eleventh year head coach Kim Mulkey is 282-77 all-time at Baylor and led her team to a national championship in 2005.
PROBABLE STARTING LINEUPS
TEXAS A&M
No. Name (2010-11 Stats)
51 Tanisha Smith with 43 seconds remaining. Then Griner got the ball under the basket and powered up for the winning layup with 16 seconds left. Texas A&M had another chance, but Smith's shot bounced off the rim and Griner got the rebound and was fouled. She missed the free throw, but Takia Starks hit a layup in the lane with six seconds left to lead No. 12 Texas A&M to a 57-56 win over No. 2 Oklahoma, ending the Sooners' 20-game winning streak. It marked the highest-ranked team A&M had ever beaten and as a result of the upset, the Aggies made headlines nationally as Starks' game-winning layup was featured as the No. 3 Top 10 Play of the Day on ESPN SportsCenter.
Texas A&M versus No. 1
L, 81-105 vs. Tennessee on Dec. 19, 1997
L, 55-66 at Texas on Feb. 11, 2004
AGGIE TOP 5 HITS
Texas A&M is 6-21 all-time against top 5 teams, and is 3-7 against the same competition when the Aggies are ranked. A&M and Baylor have never met as a pair of top 5 teams, but have met as a pair of top 10 teams three other times with Baylor coming out ahead in each contest. Texas A&M has had nine all-time top 10 matchups and is 2-7 in those contests. The Aggies dropped their only top 10 matchup of the season thus far with #7 A&M at #5 Duke.
ONE AND ONLY
Texas A&M is one of only five Division I women's basketball schools in the country and one of two Big 12 squads with one loss or less on the season. The Aggies suffered a three-point setback at Duke on Dec. 6, 2010, which snapped a six-game win streak to begin the 2010-11 campaign. The Blue Devils are the only remaining unbeaten team in the nation followed by one-loss squads in A&M, Green Bay, UConn and league foe Baylor.
ADAMS APPROACHING 1,000 POINTS
All-America candidate Danielle Adams is quickly approaching the 1,000-point mark of her Aggie career and coming into Sunday's game boasts 974 career points, lacking just 26 points to reach the 1,000 mark. Only 21 A&M players have ever reached this prestigious plateau. What's more is that only two players all-time have accomplished this feat in just two seasons – Jaynetta Saunders (1,024 from 1999-01) and Peggy Pope (1,010 in 1978-80).
AGGIE ATTENDANCE RECORD-BREAKER?
The Aggies are hoping to shatter their women's single game attendance record with a sell-out crowd on Sunday. Here are the top five single game attendance figures to date:
1. Baylor (2/15/06) L, 59-84 - 11,088
2. Baylor (1/13/07) W, 60-52 - 8,886
3. Tulsa (3/16/05) W, 73-62 - 8,532
4. Texas (2/28/07) W, 67-60 - 7,478
5. Texas Tech (1/23/10) W, 69-54 - 7,279
A SIZZLING START
Texas A&M is off to the best start in school history, winning 18 of its first 19 games. Previously, Gary Blair's Aggies had started the season at 14-1 for three straight seasons, but the 2010-11 team is the only team in program history to start the year at 18-1.
BEST BIG 12 START
The Aggies have gotten out to their first-ever 6-0 start in Big 12 play and look for their sixth-straight league win at OU. Previously, A&M at best, had gone 3-1 three times to start league play (2009-10, 2006-07, 2005-06).
PROTECTING THE ROCK
Sydney Carter and Maryann Baker not only routinely take on the task of guarding the opponent's best offensive threat, but they are among the Big 12's best this season in protecting the ball. Baker has just 15 turnovers this season and has had just two games with more than two turnovers while Carter has tallied one turnover or less in all but five of 19 games.
Player School (GP, TO, TO/game)
Maryann Baker Texas A&M (19, 15, 0.79)
Britney Blythe Colorado (19, 16, 0.84)
Jordan Barncastle Texas Tech (20, 18, 0.90)
Melissa Jones Baylor (19, 20, 1.05)
Sydney Carter Texas A&M (19, 25, 1.32)
COLSON DISHES OUT 100+ ASSISTS
For the third straight year, Sydney Colson registered 100+ assists in a single season. With three assists at Iowa State, Colson hit the 100 mark. She currently has 105 assists in 2010-11 and is on pace to shatter her assist totals from the previous two seasons (129 in 2009-10 and 106 in 2008-09). Colson has been the team leader in assists for the past two seasons and currently ranks seventh on the career list with 388 assists. She is one of only two point guards in the Big 12 to tally over 100 assists.
TWELVE STRAIGHT
Since the Aggies' only setback on Dec. 6, they have won 12 straight games which is their longest streak of the season and matches a school-record 12-game swing during the 2008-09 season and a 12-game streak in the 2007-08 season. During this season's stretch the Aggies have forced their opponents to make an outstanding 24.8 turnovers per game, while just committing 13.3 – a +11.5 turnover margin. A&M is averaging 84.8 points and over 19 assists per game to its opponents' nine. The Aggies are also shooting over 48 percent from the floor. Individually, three Aggies are averaging double figures in the last 12 games, including Adams (25.0 ppg), White (14.1 ppg) and Carter (11.3 ppg). Colson is dishing out 6.7 assists per game.
ADAMS BIG 12 PLAYER OF THE WEEK FOR THE THIRD TIME
Danielle Adams picked up her third Big 12 Player of the Week award and her fourth career honor on Jan. 24 after averaging 29.5 points, 12 rebounds and 4.5 blocks with a pair of double-doubles in wins against Texas and Iowa State. The senior from Kansas City, Mo., matched a Reed Arena record and tallied the third-most points in program history with a career-high 34 points against the Longhorns. She tied her career-best of 12 rebounds and posted her ninth career double-double and seventh this season. She scored 30+ points for the third time this season. At No. 20 Iowa State, Adams had a first-half season-high three blocked shots en route to a season-best six blocks. She again matched her career-high rebounds (12) and her career-best in 3-point field goals made (4) for a 57.1 shooting percentage from beyond the arc (4-of-7). With a team-high 25 points, Adams extended her double-digit scoring streak to 27 straight games.
ADAMS NATIONAL LEADER IN POINTS PER MINUTE
Adams is the Big 12's second-leading scorer and the nation's 10th-best leading scorer who averages 22.3 points per game, but she's also scoring efficiently as she leads the country by scoring the most points per minute. Below are Adam's points per minute, compared to the top 10 national leaders in scoring.
Name Team (MIN, PTS, PPG, PPM)
Danielle Adams Texas A&M (538, 435, 22.9, 0.809)
Brittney Griner Baylor (563, 421, 22.2, 0.748)
Maya Moore Connecticut (650, 477, 23.9, 0.734)
Courtney Hurt VCU (605, 425, 23.6, 0.703)
Kevi Luper Oral Roberts (685, 467, 23.4, 0.682)
Dawn Evans James Madison (680, 456, 24, 0.671)
Amy Jaeschke Northwestern (761, 483, 23, 0.635)
Kourtney Brown Buffalo (700, 443, 22.2, 0.633)
Adrienne Johnson Louisiana Tech (687, 420, 22.1, 0.611)
Jantel Lavender Ohio St. (741, 451, 22.6, 0.609)
FROM THE SIDELINES
• Texas A&M head coach Gary Blair is in his 26th overall season as a Division I head coach. He currently ranks in the top 20 in career victories (581) and in the top 30 by winning percentage (.709, 581-238) among active Division I coaches in the NCAA women's basketball record books.
• Blair is the all-time winningest coach in program history with 173 wins and a .698 winning percentage (173-75). He surpassed former head coach Lynn Hickey, who compiled 154 career victories from 1984-1994, with an 84-53 win over Portland State in the NCAA First Round on March 20, 2010 in Seattle, Wash.
• Blair is one of only four active Division I coaches (five all-time) to lead three different programs to the NCAA Tournament next to C. Vivian Stringer of Rutgers, Joanne P. McCallie of Duke and Jim Foster of Ohio State. Blair previously coached at Stephen F. Austin (1985-93) and Arkansas (1993-03). Blair and Stringer are the only two coaches to guide three different teams to the NCAA Sweet 16.
• Blair is 9-13 lifetime versus Baylor in his 25 years as a Division I head coach. Blair was previously an assistant coach to current Baylor assistant coach Leon Barmore at Louisiana Tech from 1980-85 and their star point guard was Kim Mulkey who led the Lady Techsters to back-to-back national championship titles in 1981 (AIAW) and 1982 (NCAA).
OKLAHOMA RECAP
Texas A&M 80, Oklahoma 78
• For the 13th time this season, Texas A&M used the starting lineup of Sydney Colson, Sydney Carter, Tyra White, Adaora Elonu and Danielle Adams. The Aggies are 12-1 with this starting lineup.
• Texas A&M improves to 16-26 in the all-time series with Oklahoma. The Aggies won just their third game (3-16) when playing on the road in Norman. Their last win was by two points (54-52) on Jan. 27, 2007.
• A&M matched a program-best 12-game winning streak with its victory against Oklahoma.
• The Aggies extend their best overall start (18-1) and their best Big 12 start (6-0).
• The Aggies led by as many as 17 points in the first half which was its largest lead against OU in the Gary Blair Era. Its previous largest lead at Lloyd Noble Center was by eight points on Feb. 12, 2008.
• A&M led by 13 points at the half, its largest and only lead in Norman at halftime in the Gary Blair Era.
• Danielle Adams' scored a first-half, career-high 21 points en route to 31 points on the evening.
• Danielle Adams extended her double-digit scoring streak to 28 straight games and marked her 12th 20-point game and fourth 30-point game this season.
• Sydney Carter reached double figures for the ninth time this season, while Tyra White registered double figures for the 15th time. White added eight rebounds.
AGGIES ON THE RADIO
All Texas A&M women's basketball games can be heard via a radio broadcast on the Texas A&M Sports Network. Play-by-play announcer Mike Wright will call the action live from Reed Arena alongside color analyst Tap Bentz on KZNE 1150 AM. A live audio feed will also be available on AggieAthletics.com.