Texas A&M
18-2, 6-1
Baylor
19-1, 6-0
Aggies Drop Heart-Breaker to No. 1 Baylor, 63-60
Jan 30, 2011 | Women's Basketball
COLLEGE STATION, Texas (AP) - Odyssey Sims scored 25 points and Brittney Griner had 17 points and 12 rebounds to help top-ranked Baylor beat No. 5 Texas A&M 63-60 on Sunday.
Sims hit a jumper in the lane with 26 seconds left to put Baylor (19-1, 6-0 Big 12) on top 62-60. A steal by Melissa Jones on Texas A&M's next possession forced the Aggies to foul her. She hit the first of two free throws to make it 63-60 with 10 seconds left.
The Aggies had a chance to tie it, but Sydney Colson's 3-point attempt was short. The Aggies got the ball back but Tyra White's desperation 3-point attempt at the buzzer was also short.
The victory is Baylor's 16th straight and leaves the Bears alone in first place in the Big 12 Conference.
White led Texas A&M (18-2, 6-1) with 18 points.
Baylor led by seven points before Texas A&M used a 10-3 spurt capped by a 3-pointer by Colson to tie it at 60-all with 49 seconds remaining before the go-ahead shot by Sims.
Texas A&M played the last few minutes without Big 12 leading scorer Danielle Adams after she fouled out. She finished with 13 points and 11 rebounds.
The Aggies used a big run in the second half to overcome a double-digit deficit and take the lead with about nine minutes left. But the Bears answered with a 9-2 spurt, fueled by six points from Sims, to take a 55-50 lead five minutes later.
The loss is Texas A&M's first since a three-point defeat by No. 3 Duke on Dec. 6 and breaks a 12-game winning streak for the Aggies. A crowd of 13,162, including Texas A&M football coach Mike Sherman, came to see the showdown of the top teams in the Big 12. It was the largest crowd to see a women's basketball game in Texas A&M history.
Adams got her fourth foul with about 5 1/2 minutes remaining and the Bears leading 51-49. Griner picked up her fourth foul less than a minute later when she went over Karla Gilbert's back trying to get a rebound.
Adams fouled out when she got tangled up with Brooklyn Pope with about four minutes remaining. Pope knocked down both free throws to make it 57-50.
The Aggies, who made just 10 of 35 shots in the first half, finally got on track early in the second half. They were down by 14 before going on an 22-6 run to take a 48-46 lead with nine minutes remaining. The Aggies had a pair of 3-pointers in that run and seemed to get Baylor off-balance with a full court press. Baylor's shooting went cold for a time early in the spurt and the team didn't score field goal for almost five minutes.
The Aggies used several different players to try to slow Griner, but Adams spent the most time defending her. She's seven inches shorter than the 6-foot-8 Griner, but used aggressive, physical play down low to help A&M deal with the star.
Griner, who became a YouTube sensation in high school for her dunking ability, looked like she might dunk it on a fast break early in the second half. But she slowed down just before reaching the goal and simply dropped it in to put Baylor ahead 40-26.
The score was tied at 19-all with about seven minutes remaining in the first half before Baylor used an 11-0 run to take a 30-19 lead about 2 1/2 minutes later. The Aggies had three turnovers and missed three shots in that span.
Griner hit a jump shot about 30 seconds before halftime to leave the Bears ahead 36-26 at the break.
Up next, the Aggies travel to Lubbock, Texas, on Saturday, Feb. 5 for a 2 p.m. matchup against Texas Tech.
POSTGAME NOTES
- For the 14th 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 12-2 with this starting lineup.
- The Aggies fell to 35-45 in the all-time series with Baylor.
- The Aggies forced Baylor into 21 turnovers, the second-most it has committed all season. In addition, A&M held the Lady Bears to a second-half field goal percentage of just 33.3 (8-of-24).
- A&M might have been outrebounded in the game, but held the advantage in the offensive boards, 18-11, with a game-high six offensive rebounds from Danielle Adams.
- Danielle Adams extended her double-digit scoring streak to 28 straight games.
- Danielle Adams registered her 12th career double-double and her ninth this season against Baylor. It marked her fourth double-double in seven Big 12 Conference games.
- Tyra White scored in double figures for the 16th time this season against Baylor, including 11 of the last 12 games. She led the team in scoring for the second time this season.
- Karla Gilbert played a league career-best 15 minutes and was key in holding BU's Brittney Griner below her average of 22.2 points per game.
- The crowd of 13,162 set a new Texas A&M women's single game attendance record and was 10th all-time on the Reed Arena list. It was also the largest home attendance figure in the Big 12 this season.
POSTGAME QUOTES
TEXAS A&M HEAD COACH Gary Blair
On the crowd...
"It was a great ball game, a great crowd and I'm proud of them, but I'm proud of you (the media) for being here as well. That was just good basketball on both ends and that's the story of the game. You saw two well-coached teams and a very educated crowd that gave us a boost."
On A&M's slow start in the first half...
"Our guards were too passive in the first half, short-arming the shots. I told them to at least take it to her (Griner) to find out, but more importantly, we got the baskets down low in the second half and got some confidence."
On forcing defensive turnovers...
"The press created a little bit of havoc for Baylor and they made adjustments. It's hard to play them, but rebounding really hurt us today."
On Danielle Adams' play...
"Baylor had a 6-footer on her the majority of the night. They didn't have Griner on her, they had her protecting home and home base was the lane. Danielle rushed some shots and lost her rhythm, but she still had some big shots for us."
On Odyssey Sims' play...
"She's played like that all year and that's the difference. I don't think there's a freshman point guard in the country that's as good as her. Odyssey has the ability to control in midair and a lot of players don't know how to use that arm. The Big 12 graduated a lot of great players last year, but the strength of our league right now is through the freshmen and sophomores that play."
JUNIOR GUARD Tyra White
On the team struggling offensively in the first half...
"I thought we got a few good looks, but I know my shots were pretty much short. I know coach Blair wanted us to attack like they were attacking us."
On the last shot of the game...
"She got a hand on it pretty hard. It was a pretty good look, but she had a good defensive play."
SENIOR FORWARD/CENTER Danielle Adams
On what the team takes away from this game...
"I think we did a pretty good job on Brittney (Griner) today. That was probably my main focus, to contain her. (Sydney) Carter had her hands full (with Odyssey Sims), so there are lots of things we can take away that are good. We did a pretty good job as a team; we're not going to let our fans down. It would be great to have a crowd like that every game, to build our energy off of what we already have. Now, we're going to get back in the gym and work hard."
SENIOR GUARD Sydney Colson
On Baylor's lead in the first half...
"I think a lot of it was them creating turnovers up high and converting them on the other end. Those were just point where you turn it over at the top of the key. Other than that, I thought we were playing pretty well on defense. During that swing, we just didn't take care of the ball.
On her turnover near the end of play...
"I just penetrated too far, I was looking to penetrate and kick. I would love to have those possessions back. A lot of the times we were forcing shots outside, we weren't trying to attack. You can't have that kind of mentality; you have to go at her (Griner)."
On making the three-pointer to tie the game at 60...
"We were just trying to do anything at that point to keep our heads in the game. I remember last year, when I could see it in our eyes in the huddle that we weren't ready, but this year we've been in a totally different mindset. I was excited at that point, but we knew we had to get up and get on the ball."
On what brought them back into the game...
"Our defense for sure, getting up and being in the press, even not necessarily getting a steal, but not letting them walk it up the court. We wanted to take some time off of the clock, to make them run offense with 20 or 15 seconds on the clock, and if we take Griner away, then they have to drive and force it inside."
BAYLOR HEAD COACH KIM MULKEY
On A&M's defense...
"Truthfully, we didn't get the ball to (Brittney) Griner enough, but that's compliments to A&M's defense. We couldn't get the ball to the wings a lot to allow us to get the ball into Griner. We understand that we have to get better in certain areas, and getting open today was very difficult for us. I'm complementing Gary first on their defense, but we lead the country in field goal percentage defense. We're going to guard you as well. We didn't give them open looks. We won't play another team that defends us as hard as Texas A&M - not in this league, not in the country. They just play very, very hard on the defensive end of the floor."
On defense on Danielle Adams...
"She didn't get a three. I thought the worst part of our defense on Adams was the offensive rebounds we allowed her to get and the put backs. She's not someone you're going to move. She's strong and she got a lot of boards on us and put backs."
On A&M's record crowd...
"It was a great atmosphere. By far it's the best that Coach Blair's program has ever had since we've been coming here. As I told our players, and I mean this, it's a shame he doesn't have that crowd for every game. He deserves it. He shouldn't have to wait for Baylor to come here. It makes all of us that love this game feel valued and appreciated and it was just a great atmosphere."
