Texas A&M
14-2, 2-1Big 12
Oklahoma
12-4, 2-1Big 12
No. 8 Aggies Fall To No. 13 Oklahoma On The Road, 74-65
Jan 17, 2010 | Women's Basketball
Jan. 17, 2010
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NORMAN, Okla. (AP) - Danielle Robinson scored 24 points, Nyeshia Stevenson added 20 points and No. 13 Oklahoma snapped No. 8 Texas A&M's seven-game winning streak with a 74-65 victory on Sunday.
The Sooners (12-4, 2-1) stunned A&M at the start of both halves to build a 16-point lead, then staved off a second-half rally.
Robinson hit six free throws in a 2-minute stretch after Texas A&M had cut the deficit to three with 6:29 to play, and Oklahoma was able to hang on from there.
Tanisha Smith, the Aggies' leading scorer, was held to eight points on 4-of-13 shooting.
Smith was on the bench in foul trouble when A&M made its charge. White hit a 3-pointer to get it going and Sydney Carter's driving layup from the right side cut the deficit to 60-56 with 7:59 remaining.
Colson stripped the ball from Jasmine Hartman and rushed in for a fast-break layup to make it 63-60, but then Robinson started attacking the basket and getting rewarded with trips to the foul line. She hit six in a row to extend Oklahoma's edge back to 69-61 as neither team hit a field goal for more than 3 minutes.
Smith, who had been averaging 17.3 points, returned briefly but had no impact before fouling out with 4:49 to play, providing Robinson with the last in her string of free throws.
Danielle Adams finished with 12 points but went 1-for-6 from 3-point range on an off night for the nation's top 3-point shooting team. The Aggies, who had been making 42.6 percent of their 3-point tries, went just 6-for-21 (29 percent) from the arc.
Amanda Thompson and Abi Olajuwon had matching double-doubles for Oklahoma, with 14 points and 11 rebounds apiece.
For the second straight year, the Sooners denied Texas A&M a chance for its first 3-0 start in Big 12 play.
After giving up an easy layup to Adoara Elonu off the opening tip, the Sooners outscored A&M 15-2 over the next 4 minutes and took a 15-4 lead on Olajuwon's left-handed hook shot from the left block. The Aggies twice got within five points before Stevenson hit a pair of 3-pointers as Oklahoma pushed its lead back to 41-27 in the closing minute of the first half.
White's 3-pointer got the Aggies within 11 at halftime but the Sooners responded to Smith's jumper at the start of the second half with seven straight points to build their lead to 48-32. It proved to be too big of a hole for the Aggies.
A&M will have a bye this week before taking on Big 12 South rival Texas Tech (13-4, 1-2) on Saturday, Jan. 23 at 3 p.m. (CT) at Reed Arena in College Station.
POSTGAME NOTES
• For the 11th time this season, Texas A&M used the starting lineup of Tanisha Smith, Damitria Buchanan (9-2).
• The loss marked the first for the Aggies against a top 25 opponent and only their second loss on the road this season. They are now 5-1 versus nationally-ranked competition.
• A&M lost its third-straight road game in Norman and have not beaten OU on its home court since its second-ever road victory in the all-time series during the 2007-08 campaign.
• Tyra White scored a career-and season-high tying 18 points versus Oklahoma. It marked the third time this season in which she has led the team in scoring.
• Sydney Colson drained a season-high three three-pointers, all in the first half of play against the Sooners. She also made a season-high five of the team's 11 steals in the ballgame.1
• Danielle Adams contributed 12 points off the bench and has now reached double figures in 14 games this season including the last eight-straight contests.
• Texas A&M trailed an opponent for the first time this season, 41-30, at halftime.
POSTGAME QUOTES
Texas A&M Head Coach Gary Blair
On the game ...
"Anytime after a loss, the head coach and the point guards come (into the press conference), because we are responsible for our basketball team. It wouldn't have mattered if Tanisha (Smith) had scored 28 points or if we got beat like we did. I bring the point guards in with me, because we are accountable. It was all OU today. That's the storyline. The storyline was Danielle Robinson and Nyeshia's (Stevenson) threes in the first half and (Abi) Olajuwon and what she was able to do. She (Olajuwon) might be the most-improved player in the conference. Give the kid a lot of credit. She has lost weight and waited for her opportunity just like (Damitria) Buchanan has for us. We couldn't play Buchanan as much as I would have liked, because of two early and not so smart fouls. When we got behind, I had to go with (Danielle) Adams for longer than I wanted to, and as a result, Olajuwon hurt us on the defensive end and hurt us on rebounding. When we were behind, we had to have scoring options, because Oklahoma was doing a great job of taking Tanisha away. I thought Oklahoma was very smart and spread it out. Robinson has been to the free throw line two times in the last three games. We tried to accommodate her, by reaching and fouling and that's her strength. Other teams have figured out how not to foul her. We didn't figure it out tonight. She went to the free throw line 11 times and made 10. It isn't the officiating. It's our defense and her good offense of taking the ball. You can't take a charge on Robinson. It's too hard. You have to make her shoot the threeball, make her shoot the jumpshot and then you have to rebound the ball. We didn't do a good job of that tonight."
Texas A&M Junior Point Guard Sydney Colson
On the game and the team's second-half comeback ...
"Today, we just didn't give a good defensive effort. We already knew that (Danielle) Robinson was going to overplay us and not let us come back to our right hand side. A lot of times when we are running a play, we have to go to another option. But, I don't think it totally took us out of our offensive game plan. We just didn't execute a lot of our stuff. It was taking us long to get into plays and people couldn't hear. It was lot of mental lapses. It just wasn't a good effort by us. The whole first half completely was a total funk and we weren't making stuff happen. Later in the second half, when we were getting things going, it was too little, too late. If we would have knocked down a shot, it would have been a closer game. We weren't getting stops like we wanted to."
