March 8, 2011
Complete Release in PDF Format 
#2 Seed TEXAS A&M (25-4) vs. # 7 Seed TEXAS (18-12) or #10 Seed MISSOURI (13-17)
Game #30
March 9, 2011 • 5:00 p.m. (CT)
Municipal Auditorium (9,308)
at Kansas City, Mo.
Television: Fox Sports Net
Radio: Texas A&M Sports Network (KZNE 1150 AM)
Series History: Texas Leads 58-22
Series History: Texas A&M Leads 10-7
Internet: Live Statistics and Live Video at www.Big12Sports.com
GAME PREVIEW
The eighth-ranked and second-seeded Texas A&M women's basketball team (25-4) heads to Kansas City seeking a repeat of its memorable postseason championship title run in the same town and same venue just a short year ago in 2010. The Aggies are winners of their last four out of five regular season games and hope to carry that momentum into this year's Phillips 66 Big 12 Conference Women's Basketball Championship to be held March 8-9 and 11-12 at Municipal Auditorium. The Aggies face either seventh-seeded Texas (18-12) or 10th-seeded Missouri (13-17) in quarterfinal action on Wednesday, March 9 at 5 p.m., with the winner advancing to the semifinals on Thursday. It will be a big Kansas City homecoming for A&M's top leading scorers and two All-Big 12 First Team selections in Danielle Adams (23.3 ppg) and Tyra White (13.8 ppg) who starred at high schools within the metro area. The duo has created a one-of-a-kind KC masterpiece in Aggieland, accounting for 47 percent of the team's scoring production this season. The Aggies carry their best seeding into this week since finishing at the top of the Big 12 standings and earning the top seed in 2007. A&M has played to three straight championship game appearances in the last three years and is currently the second-highest ranked Big 12 team in the country behind third-ranked Baylor, who claimed the No. 1 seed. Tournament victories or the league's automatic bid can only improve the Aggies' seeding as the NCAA Tournament field of 64 is announced on Selection Monday, March 14 on ESPN.
THE ROAD TO KANSAS CITY
For the sixth consecutive season, Texas A&M captured one of the top four seeds and a first-round bye going into postseason tournament play. The team was joined by Big 12 regular season champion Baylor, followed by third-seeded Oklahoma and fourth-seeded Kansas State. The Aggies finished in second place in the final regular season standings and matched their best Big 12 record with a 13-3 mark, their sixth straight 10-win campaign under head coach Gary Blair. A&M is one of just two league schools to earn a first-round bye in each of the last six postseason tournaments.
BIG 12 CHAMPIONSHIP COVERAGE
The Big 12 Championship quarterfinals, semifinals and championship game will be aired before a nationally-televised audience exclusively on Fox Sports Net. Play-by-play announcer Mark Ewing and color analyst Brenda VanLengen will call Texas A&M's quarterfinal game against Texas or Missouri live from Municipal Auditorium on FSN. Check your local listings.
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AGGIES IN THE BIG 12 TOURNEY
Texas A&M is making up for its previous losses in a short period of time. The Aggies may be 11-12 all-time in Big 12 Championship games, but have put together an astounding 8-1 record over the last three years in postseason play. This will be the sixth-straight year in which A&M will vie for postseason hardware as one of the top four seeds in the tournament field. In fact, the Aggies (10-3) have the most Big 12 postseason victories of any team in the league over the last five seasons. A&M sports a 5-1 record in the quarterfinals and looks to take home back-to-back Big 12 postseason championship titles as the team last won three-straight in Kansas City in 2010.
SCOUTING TEXAS
Texas dropped four of its last five games of the Big 12 regular season, which included its 10th straight loss to the Aggies on Feb. 27. UT also fell in its final contest, a 67-68 loss at Oklahoma State. The Longhorns are paced by All-Big 12 Second Team and Big 12 All-Freshman Team performer Chassidy Fussell with 16.9 points per game. Honorable mention selection Kathleen Nash brings down a team-best 7.9 rebounds per game is UT's second-leading scorer with 13.9 points per game. Ashley Gayle, a 6-foot-4 post, ranks second in the league with 3.5 blocked shots per game. Yvonne Anderson (12.2 ppg) and Ashleigh Fontenette (11.9 ppg) also average double figures for the Longhorns.
EYEING THE TIGERS
Missouri has also lost four of its last five regular season games, but did however come away with a 49-48 victory over Iowa State in its final matchup on March 5. Last year in the Big 12 Championship, Mizzou fell to Texas, 59-64, and ended its season in the first round. The upset-minded Tigers are led by senior RaeShara Brown with 16.8 points and 4.4 assists per game. Brown was an All-Big 12 Second Team honoree. Christine Flores (13.0 ppg) is the team's second-leading scorer who grabs a team-high 6.2 rebounds per game.
PROBABLE STARTING LINEUPS
TEXAS A&M
No. Name (2010-11 Stats)
51 Sydney Colson, G, 5-8, Sr. (7.5 ppg, 6.4 apg)
4 Sydney Carter, G, 5-6, Jr. (10.1 ppg, 3.0 apg)
20 Tyra White, G, 6-0, Jr. (13.8 ppg, 4.8 rpg)
21 Adaora Elonu, F, 6-1, Jr. (8.7 ppg, 5.8 rpg)
23 Danielle Adams, F/C, 6-1, Sr. (23.3 ppg, 8.5 rpg)
TEXAS
No. Name (2010-11 Stats)
5 Kathleen Nash, G, 6-2, Sr. (13.9 ppg, 7.9 rpg)
12 Yvonne Anderson, G, 5-7, Jr. (12.2 ppg, 3.0 rpg)
22 Ashley Gayle, G, 6-4, Jr. (7.0 ppg, 7.2 rpg)
24 Chassidy Fussell, G, 5-10, Fr. (16.9 ppg, 5.1 rpg)
33 Ashleigh Fontenette, G, 5-8, Jr. (11.9 ppg, 4.9 rpg)
MISSOURI
No. Name 2010-11 Stats
10 Jasmyn Otote, G, 5-9, Sr. (4.3 ppg, 3.4 rpg)
23 RaeShara Brown, G, 5-8, Sr. (16.8 ppg, 5.9 rpg)
25 Trenee Thornton, G, 5-7, So. (3.1 ppg, 1.4 rpg)
44 Shakara Jones, F, 6-2, Sr. (9.5 ppg, 5.7 rpg)
50 Christine Flores, F, 6-3, Jr. (13.0 ppg, 6.2 rpg)
SERIES HISTORY
Texas holds a 58-22 advantage in the all-times series with Texas A&M. However, the Aggies have won 10 straight including 12 out of the last 13 meetings between the two storied rivals. For the first time last season, A&M beat the Longhorns three times and have swept the Longhorns in the home-and-home series in 2005-06, 2007-08, 2008-09 and 2009-10. In addition, in seven of the last eight contests, the Aggies have won by double digits including a 13-point victory (77-64) over the Longhorns in the 2010 Big 12 Championship quarterfinals. Meanwhile, Missouri is one of only two league teams, the other being Kansas, in which A&M has a winning record against in the all-time series. The Aggies hold a three-game 10-7 advantage and are currently riding a seven-game winning streak in the series dating back to a 72-52 victory at home on Jan. 21, 2006 in College Station. The Aggies last met Mizzou in the Big 12 Quarterfinals in 2008 which resulted in a 65-39 rout of the Tigers in Kansas City. A&M is 2-1 in Big 12 Tournament games all-time versus the Longhorns and 1-1 against the Tigers.
UP NEXT
Should the Aggies win on Wednesday, they will then play in the semifinals on Friday, March 11 at 2:30 p.m. The finals are set for Saturday, March 12 at 11 a.m. Each game is televised nationally on FSN.
AGGIE TOURNAMENT SIDEBARS
• Texas A&M is the only school in the Big 12 to receive first-round byes in the league tournament for its men's and women's basketball teams each of the last two seasons.
• Texas A&M is one of only two league schools, next to Kansas State, to get both its men's and women's basketball squads into the top four of the league standings.
• A&M is the only Big 12 team to make consecutive semifinal appearances over the last five years, looking to make it a sixth in Kansas City. The Aggies are 3-2 all-time when playing in the semifinals.
• The Aggies have beaten the No. 1 (twice), No. 3 (twice), No. 5 (twice), No. 6, No. 7, No. 8 (twice) and No. 12 seeds all-time in the tournament. Of their 11 overall victories, five were against Big 12 South opponents in and top-seeded Oklahoma (2009), third-seeded Oklahoma State (2008) and third-seeded Oklahoma (2010), fifth-seeded Texas (2010) and seventh-seeded Texas (1998) and the remaining six versus the Big 12 North in top-seeded Nebraska (2010), fifth-seeded Kansas State (2009), sixth-seeded Nebraska (2006), eighth-seeded Colorado (2007), 12th-seeded Missouri (2008) and eighth-seeded Iowa State (2008). A&M has faced nine of the 11 member schools in postseason play and have appeared three times in the championship game since the league's formation.
• Danielle Adams is no stranger to the Big 12 Championship. She was the 2010 Most Outstanding Player and she attended the 2009 championship held in Kansas City. Ironically, it was the same year in which A&M made its tournament run and beat Oklahoma State in the finals in 2008. The Aggies, however, were not recruiting her at the time. “I always knew I wanted to play in the Big 12 and have a chance at a conference championship,” Adams said. “I thought the Aggies played well throughout the tournament and I was really excited to watch them play their style of defense.”
FIVE AGGIES EARN BIG 12 WOMEN'S BASKETBALL ACCOLADES
Danielle Adams and Tyra White, both from Kansas City, Mo., were selected to the All-Big 12 first team, senior Maryann Baker (Dallas, Texas) claimed the Sixth Man Award, junior Sydney Carter (DeSoto, Texas) was voted to the Big 12 All-Defensive Team and both Carter and senior Sydney Colson (Houston, Texas) were named All-Big 12 Honorable Mention.
HEAD OF THE CLASS
The 2011 senior class comprised of Danielle Adams, Maryann Baker, Sydney Colson and Catherine Snow have been a part of three-straight NCAA Tournament squads, including an Elite Eight appearance in 2008 and a Sweet 16 appearance in 2009. They also compiled a 107-28 (.793) winning record since their arrival in Aggieland which is the best record of any senior class in school history. These Aggie seniors have also taken part in three Big 12 Conference Championship titles.
COLSON DISHES IT OUT
Sydney Colson currently has 172 assists this season and with two more assists will register the most in a single season since Toccara Williams (192 in 2004). 172 assists shatters her 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 years and currently ranks fifth on the career list with 455 assists. Colson has registered 100+ assists for the three straight years.
AGGIES FINISH FOURTH IN ATTENDANCE
Texas A&M finished its regular season averaging 6,104 fans at each home game, which ranks fourth-best in the Big 12. The Aggies are currently 12th in the country in attendance and have been in the top 25 in national attendance for the past three seasons.
FROM THE SIDELINES
• Texas A&M head coach Blair is 12-7 lifetime versus Texas in his 26 years as a Division I head coach. All 12 of his career victories against the Longhorns have come during his time in Aggieland. He is 11-2 all-time when playing a Gail Goestenkors-coached squad in Duke (2-2) and Texas (9-0) combined.
• Coach Blair and Coach Yori are one of only three Big 12 head coaches with 20+ years of service to the women's game. Blair is in his 26th overall season with career stops at Stephen F. Austin, Arkansas and Texas A&M, while Yori is in her 21st overall season at Creighton and Nebraska combined. They are joined by Iowa State head coach Bill Fennelly who is in his 23rd overall season.
• Blair is 11-3 all-time against Missouri including a 7-2 record versus the Tigers in Big 12 Conference play (regular season and postseason combined).
• All-America Candidate Danielle Adams, a Kansas City native, originally signed with Missouri and former head coach Cyndi Stein out of Lee's Summit High School, where she earned first-team all-state honors as a senior averaging 21.4 points per game. Adams did not qualify academically for Mizzou and had to go the junior college route to become eligible for Division I play. In two seasons at Jefferson College, located in Hillsboro, Mo., Adams was named a two-time JUCO All-American and the 2009 WBCA National Junior College Player of the Year.
NEBRASKA RECAP
Texas A&M 84, Nebraska 49
• For the first time this season, Texas A&M used the starting lineup of Sydney Colson, Maryann Baker, Tyra White, Karla Gilbert and Danielle Adams. The Aggies are 1-0 with this starting lineup. All 14 Aggies saw playing time in Saturday's game.
• The 35-point margin of victory was A&M's largest against Nebraska since a 43-point margin of victory on Feb. 8, 2009 in College Station.
• The Aggies' 25 wins are the fourth-most in school history and just four shy of the school record (29 in 2008).
• The senior class of Danielle Adams, Maryann Baker, Sydney Colson and Catherine Snow became the winningest in school history Saturday, with a 107-28 (.793) record since their arrival in Aggieland.
• For the seventh time this season, the Aggies registered 20+ assists in a game.
• Danielle Adams has now reached double figures in 37 of the last 38 games
• Adaora Elonu registered double figures for the 11th time this season.
• Adrienne Pratcher scored career-high nine points, going 4-of-5 from the floor.
• The attendance of 8,981 was the second largest crowd this season and the third largest in program history.
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 and RadioAggieland.com.