Texas A&M
12-1
Louisiana-Monroe
8-7
Adams Leads No. 5 Aggies To 105-57 Rout Over ULM
Jan 04, 2011 | Women's Basketball
COLLEGE STATION, Texas (AP) - Danielle Adams scored 32 points and No. 5 Texas A&M wrapped up its non-conference schedule with its sixth straight win, 105-57 over ULM on Tuesday night.
The Aggies had a 17-point halftime lead, but ULM cut it to 52-40 after sinking a pair of 3-pointers early in the second half. Texas A&M (12-1) answered with a 22-2 run that was helped by five turnovers by the Warhawks to extend its lead to 74-42 with about 13 minutes remaining.
Adams had 10 points in that span and finished with seven rebounds and two assists.
ULM (8-7) was led by Kassie Courtney who had 18 points.
Tyra White added a career-high 22 points for the Aggies as they finished with a season-high in points, besting the 100 points they scored in a win over Purdue.
It was the 22nd straight game with double figures for Adams and Texas A&M's 43rd straight non-conference home win. ULM is the ninth opponent this season the Aggies have beaten by at least 25 points.
The Texas A&M defense hurried and harassed ULM into 36 turnovers, a season high, and the Aggies scored 51 points off those mistakes.
A&M made its first five shots and jumped out to a 12-1 lead and were up 27-12 before Louisiana-Monroe went on a 9-2 run to cut the lead to 29-21 about midway through the first half.
Texas A&M's Sydney Colson was injured when she collided with a fellow player. She did not return to the game, but was on the bench in the second half.
A&M got back on track after Colson left and answered ULM's run with a 17-4 spurt to extend the lead to 47-25 about three minutes before halftime.
The Aggies led 51-34 at halftime.
Texas A&M forced 12 of Louisiana-Monroe's 36 turnovers in the first few minutes of the game and scored 18 of its first 29 points off those miscues.
POSTGAME NOTES
- For the sixth time this season, Texas A&M used the starting lineup of Sydney Colson, Sydney Carter, Tyra White, Adaora Elonu and Danielle Adams, and 13 players saw action in the game. The Aggies are 6-1 with this starting lineup.
- Texas A&M improves to 2-0 all-time against ULM, having won both games at Reed Arena.
- A&M's 105 points marks the most Aggie points since a 108-49 win over North Texas on Dec. 8, 2009. A&M has scored 90+ points in back-to-back games. It also marks the fourth time the team has scored 90 or more points this season.
- The margin of victory (48 pts) was the largest margin of victory against an opponent since Dec. 8, 2009 when the Aggies defeated North Texas by 59 points.
- Texas A&M shot a season-high 61.9 percent from the floor which included a season-best 67.9 field goal percentage in the second half.
- For the second straight game and third time this season, A&M forced its opponent to make 30+ turnovers.
- A&M matched its season high with 19 steals. In addition, for the first time this season four players (Sydney Carter, Adaora Elonu, Kelsey Assarian and Adrienne Pratcher) tallied three or more steals each.
- The Aggies dished out 24 assists against the Warhawks, to mark the fifth time they have had 20 or more assists this season. Twenty-four assists in the second-highest amount this season, next to 25 against TCU on Dec. 12.
- Texas A&M outscored ULM in the paint, 52-18. In addition, A&M's bench outscored ULM's, 33-13.
- Adrienne Pratcher registered career-bests with eight assists and four steals in a career-high 27 minutes.
- Sydney Carter reached double figures in back-to-back games and for the sixth time this season.
- Danielle Adams' 32 points is the second-highest of her career, next to 33 against TCU on Dec. 12.
POSTGAME QUOTES
HEAD COACH Gary Blair
Opening statement...
"I thought we did a good job in transition. We shared the ball well and made a couple of tough shots. We were good from the free-throw line and offensively we did some pretty great things. Adrienne Pratcher came in and was solid again like she's been all year. Stats-wise we're playing like the No. 5 team in the country and this is the best offensive team we've had since I've been here, but we want to become a better defensive team and a smarter team and that's what we're going to work on in practice."
On the team's defensive performance...
"Defensively, we made a lot of mistakes. We cannot be happy with our performance on the defensive end. We'll work on that. I'd like to give ULM a lot of credit, because they took it to us. There was no fear in their eyes whatsoever and that's the history of their program. They played us harder than Drexel and San Diego State. We kept getting beat on penetration and there's no excuse for that, but let's turn the page, look at the good we had during the ball game and turn to conference play."
On forcing a season-high 36 turnovers from ULM...
"That was good and, for the most part, we took care of the basketball. We played a lot of people and we had 13 turnovers. I can live with that."
On what the team needs to work on before conference play...
"To be able to solve some of the problems on the court themselves without having to substitute or have a coach tell them what to do. It needs to be a little more enjoyable for Coach Schaefer and I sometimes. We think this team has a chance to go a long way and we have a chance to get off to a rolling-good start (in the Big 12). We played less home games (in non-conference) than anyone in our conference by design - to get us mentally tougher (for our Big 12 opponents)."
SENIOR FORWARD/CENTER Danielle Adams
On forcing 36 turnovers...
"That's just what coach wants to do, force as many turnovers as we can and not turn the ball over. We played fairly well on the defensive end, but 36 turnovers is great, I think coach will be happy with that."
On how the team is doing going into conference play...
"There are still things we need to work on, on the defensive end and on the offensive end, but I think we're ready for conference and the tough competition that the Big 12 brings."
On how she feels at this point in the season...
"The extra workouts I do and the work in practice makes me better every day. This is the best I've ever felt and it's a pretty good feeling."
JUNIOR GUARD Tyra White
On ULM coming within 12 early in second half...
"I think we just got out of our comfort zone, but after getting chewed out in the huddle, we got it together. We stopped making turnovers and fouls and sending them to the line and got it back together really fast."
On Sydney's injury and its affect on the team...
"It always has an effect when Sydney goes down. She's pretty much the leader of our team. Adrienne (Pratcher) came in and gave us good production though and our bench did well."
On what was working to get her career high in points...
"My shot wouldn't fall at first, so after missing a couple I tried to get out on the (fast) break and make the easy points to get me in my comfort zone."
