Texas A&M
17-6,8-4Big 12
Baylor
25-0,12-0Big 12
No. 14 Aggies Fall at No. 1 Baylor
Feb 11, 2012 | Women's Basketball
WACO, Texas (AP) - Brittney Griner scored right away and top-ranked Baylor was quickly on the way to avenging its last loss, beating No. 15 Texas A&M 71-48 Saturday night in their first meeting since last year's NCAA tournament.
Griner, who finished with 21 points and 10 rebounds, put the Lady Bears (25-0, 12-0 Big 12) ahead to stay with her inside basket and free throw only a half-minute into the game.
After Tyra White scored on the first shot by Texas A&M, Baylor scored 14 consecutive points over a four-minute span.
Texas A&M (17-6, 8-4) had lost eight in a row against Baylor, including three last season before that NCAA regional final victory last March. That sent the Aggies to their first Final Four on way to winning the national championship.
For the long-awaited rematch, which Lady Bears coach Kim Mulkey has repeatedly said will be SEC-bound Texas A&M's last visit to Waco, there was a record-tying sellout crowd of 10,627.
Odyssey Sims had 19 points while Brooklyn Pope had 10 points and nine rebounds for the Lady Bears. Griner, a 6-foot-8 junior, also blocked six shots.
White had 18 points to lead Texas A&M, which had won four in a row and seven of eight before shooting 28 percent (18 of 64). Sydney Carter added 13.
The Lady Bears extended their school-record home winning streak to 37 games. Texas A&M last won there in 2007.
With six games left in the round-robin Big 12 schedule, including a Feb. 27 game at College Station, the Lady Bears have a four-game lead in the conference standings over second-place A&M.
The Aggies are the only Big 12 team to hold any opponent under 40 points in a game this season, including a 67-36 victory over Kansas State on Wednesday. They trailed Baylor 40-21 at halftime.
After not scoring consecutive baskets in the first half, Texas A&M scored the first six points after halftime.
White had a jumper that gave Blair something to clap about, before Kelsey Bone blocked a layup attempt by Griner that led to a jumper by Adaora Elonu. Then Elonu had a steal she converted into a layup to cut the gap to 40-27.
Texas A&M never got closer, and Baylor finally scored again when Hayden penetrated for a short baseline jumper to start a 15-5 run.
POSTGAME NOTES
TEAM NOTES
- For the 11th time this season, Texas A&M used the starting lineup of Alexia Standish, Sydney Carter, Tyra White, Adaora Elonu and Kelsey Bone...The Aggies are 8-3 with this starting lineup.
- The Aggies move to 36-48 in the all-time series against Baylor and are now 13-26 when playing the Lady Bears in Waco.
- The Aggies are 5-3 on national TV this season.
- A&M is 0-5 all-time when playing the No. 1 team in the country.
- Texas A&M was held to a season-low 48 points.
- Texas A&M held the advantage in turnovers, 18-14.
INDIVIDUAL NOTES
- White has now started in 81 straight games, a streak that started on Jan. 4, 2010 against Lamar.
- White has now scored in double figures 28 of her last 31 games.
- Carter scored double figures for the 14th time this season.
- Elonu grabbed a career-best eight offensive rebounds and a season-high 12 total boards.
- Karla Gilbert added five rebounds.
POSTGAME QUOTES
A&M HEAD COACH GARY BLAIR
Opening Statement
Folks, you saw why they are No. 1 in the country. It's not what they did offensively; it's what they did defensively. They made it tough on our wings to get open. With new point guards we couldn't really get into the sets we wanted to. A lot of that credit goes to their defense. We knew we were going to have trouble inside, everybody does inside, but darn it, we're human and we still take it in there and get it slapped back to College Station a few times, but we competed. I was proud of our fight that we had in the second half. We came out, hit a few baskets, they made a couple uncharacteristic turnovers and we took advantage of them. I don't sugarcoat it. I said this team is a work in progress and it's been that way all year. We had won seven of our last eight, but we have growing pains. We're learning how to play with that Aggie toughness that you have to have. They had a statement game to make. They made their statement and the nation saw it. Give them all the credit in the world. The crowd was special. We appreciate all the Aggies that came and supported us.
On A&M's Adaora Elonu
She's a very good player for us and we build off of her, but we have to have the easy shots. When they did make mistakes, we were intimidated and short-armed so many shots. Elonu is a solid player, but she has to carry us because she had better chances to score than our perimeter players that couldn't get open.
On Baylor's Brittney Griner and what she's improved on since last year
She's such a good kid and deserves all the accolades that she's getting. She's a better free throw shooter, she's 20 pounds heavier and she's a lot better on the offensive boards this year. She can play 40 minutes a game every game and she never takes a play off. To me, Griner is the best player that's ever played the game. A (national championship) ring is about the only thing she lacks on her resume because everything else is there.
SENIOR GUARD SYDNEY CARTER
On Odyssey Sims' defensive pressure
That just shows that we need to work on our ball handling. She's a good defender and is going to be aggressive, so we have to attack aggression with aggression and take the ball to the basket and look for those dishes. Any time you do get past Odyssey, she's (Griner) going to be there waiting. We just have to knock down those open shots. In the game we won we were hitting those outside shots.
On what has to happened for A&M the next time the team plays Baylor
I think it's just like I said, we're going to have to attack their aggressiveness with ours. You can't be scared when you're playing a team like Baylor. They're always going to have that fire when they play us because I think that we have a respect both ways. There's definitely that respect there, but you just have to attack them and find their holes.
SENIOR GUARD TYRA WHITE
On what's different defensively about Baylor
They have a 6-8 girl in the middle so it's kind of hard to attack like we do other teams. After we got in the flow, I think we did a better job of attacking more.
On the sell-out crowd
That's what we play the game for, for crowds like that and to play against the No. 1 team in the country. I wish we could have given more in this game, but hopefully when they come to College Station it will be a better game.
