Texas A&M
23-3, 11-2
Texas Tech
19-8, 6-7
No. 5 Aggies Dominate Texas Tech, 84-60
Feb 22, 2011 | Women's Basketball
COLLEGE STATION, Texas (AP) - Texas Tech coach Kristy Curry is convinced there's something about her team that brings out the best in Texas A&M's Danielle Adams.
"We seem to really struggle matchup-wise against her," Curry said. "Danielle always seems to have a good night (against us)."
Adams scored 20 of her 30 points in the first half and had a career-high-tying 13 rebounds to lead No. 5 Texas A&M to an 84-60 win over Texas Tech on Tuesday night. The senior has scored 56 points in A&M's two meetings with the Lady Raiders this season and notched her only career triple-double against them last season.
She isn't sure why she has had so much success against Texas Tech.
"There's no particular team that I feel like I can do more against," she said. "I just go out and play my game."
Texas A&M (23-3, 11-2 Big 12) was up by eight at halftime and used a 16-4 run to open the second half and stretch the lead to 52-32 with about 15 minutes left. Sydney Colson and Adams both made 3-pointers and had three-point plays in that stretch to build the big lead.
Texas Tech had trouble dealing with the physical play of Adams, who had 10 rebounds to go with her 20 points at halftime despite near constant double teams when she got the ball down low. Adams also made 2 of 3 3-pointers.
"They don't have that dominant defensive post player that can stop her," Texas A&M coach Gary Blair said. "Their post players are very good offensively but Danielle can go inside-outside. How many post players in this league can do that?"
The loss breaks a three-game winning streak for Texas Tech (19-8, 6-7), who beat then-No. 1 Baylor on Saturday. Chynna Brown had 15 points and Teena Wickett added 11 for the Lady Raiders.
Curry thinks her team may have gotten too amped up after their win over the Bears.
"We've got to mature and grow to the point where what we did last week can't look big to us," she said. "We've got to learn to be more consistent with our maturity and learn what we have to do night in and night out. We've got to put this one behind us. We didn't seem to put the last one behind us very well."
Texas Tech leading scorer Kierra Mallard struggled on Tuesday, finishing with just four points on 1-of-5 shooting. Blair, a graduate of Texas Tech, approached Mallard after the game for a bit of encouragement.
"I told her that she's still the best player on that team," he said. "Then I asked her if she was ready to lead the team to the NCAA tournament."
Adams, who leads the Big 12 in scoring and is second in rebounding, got her first career first-half double-double in the win and Tyra White added 20 points for Texas A&M.
The 24-point loss is Texas Tech's most lopsided defeat of the season. The Lady Raiders' second-worst loss this season also came against Texas A&M, 79-65 on Feb. 5.
The Lady Raiders didn't look much like the team that ended Baylor's 21-game winning streak three days earlier. In that game, they held the Bears to a season-low 25.9 percent shooting and their fewest points of the season.
On Tuesday they allowed the Aggies to shoot better than 55 percent and Texas A&M's 84 points were the most they've allowed all season. Texas A&M was also helped by a season-high 89.5 percent free throw shooting (17 of 19).
"We knew they were going to come in fired up after beating the No. 1 team in the nation," Adams said. "We just had to play tremendous defense."
The game was tied at 16-all midway through the first half before Texas A&M used a 15-4 run to take a 31-20 about three minutes before halftime. Texas Tech scored eight straight points after that to cut the advantage to 31-28 two minutes later.
Colson, who finished with 10 points, five assists and three steals, made a pair of free throws and Adams had a 3-point play in the last minute of the half to take a 36-28 lead into halftime.
Up next, the Aggies travel to the state capital on Sunday, Feb. 27 for a 2 p.m. game against Texas that is televised nationally on FSN.POSTGAME NOTES
- For the third time this season, Texas A&M used the starting lineup of Sydney Colson, Sydney Carter, Tyra White, Karla Gilbert and Danielle Adams. The Aggies are 3-0 with this starting lineup and 13 players saw action in the game.
- Texas A&M moved the all-time series to 17-54 with Texas Tech. The Aggies have won nine of the last 11 meetings between the two Big 12 South rivals and have also won six straight at Reed Arena.
- The Aggies dominated the Lady Raiders in the paint outscoring them 36-22 and outrebounding Tech 35-26.
- A&M`s 62.5 percent from beyond the arc was a season-best and its 55.4 percent from the field was its best in Big 12 play this season.
- Danielle Adams had a 30-point game for the seventh time in her career, which matches Jaynetta Saunders for the most career 30-point games.
- For the second time this season, Danielle Adams and Tyra White had 30- and 20-point performances, respectively, in the same game. The duo accounted for 50 of A&M's 84 points.
- Danielle Adams has now posted double figures in 34 of her last 35 games.
- Karla Gilbert scored a league career-best 10 points in the game.
POSTGAME QUOTES
HEAD COACH Gary Blair
On the team's overall play...
"That was probably our most complete game that we've had in quite a while here at home. The energy was very good on the defensive end and it was a great effort by our team. I think our kids were ready to play defense and defense creates offense. We also did a good job the whole night on (Texas Tech's Casey) Morris and (Kierra) Mallard. Our team is all about sharing. It doesn't matter who you start and who you finish, they just play as a team."
On Texas Tech's play and future...
"They are an NCAA team. We had to play real well to beat a team like that. They just beat No. 20 (Iowa State) and No. 1 (Baylor) and this game is not going to be that big of a setback for them."
On Karla Gilbert's play...
"(Karla) Gilbert played very well. She's been very good on the road, but this was her best home game this year. This gives us a lot of confidence and gives us a real good option to put (Adaora) Elonu in there to shoot the high post shots when they start doubling up on Danielle (Adams)."
On Tyra White's play...
"Tyra got two quick ones, but the depth of our team allowed us to keep her out until halftime. I kept calling about every play I had for her in the second half and she just kept knocking them down. It was a great half for her and a great first half for Danielle. Kansas City has more than good barbeque; they produce a lot of good basketball players there too. Kansas City has been our second home and I look forward to taking them back for the Big 12 Tournament."
On Danielle Adams' great career numbers versus Tech...
"Danielle can go inside and outside. How many post players in this league can do what she's doing? I just think you're looking at one of the all-time best players to ever play here. I don't think it's Tech as much as it's just Danielle being a really good player."
SENIOR FORWARD Danielle Adams
On scoring in the first half...
"I was just getting inside and dominating inside. That was the game plan. From the last game we saw we could get inside and dominate, so that's what we tried to do this game."
On preparing for Texas Tech...
"We know every team's scouting report, we just came out and played our game tonight. We knew they were going to be fired up after beating the No. 1 team in the nation and we knew we had to keep our focus and just go out and play like us with tremendous defense and we had that tonight."
On getting the ball to Tyra White in the second half...
"We look for Tyra every night, but she was hot in those minutes. She's the most athletic player we have on our team and she's a great player."
JUNIOR GUARD Tyra White
On A&M's defensive play...
"I think we started out very aggressive then kind of let it slip up, but overall it was a very good game for us, better than the Oklahoma State game last week."
On taking a lead in the first four minutes of the second half....
"Coach Schaefer always tells us to play four-minute games, so we wanted to come out and win the first four minutes. That's what we did and we just wanted to keep progressing every four minutes after that."
TEXAS TECH HEAD COACH KRISTY CURRY
On how tough was it to guard Danielle Adams...
"Obviously, just give credit to her. We seem to bring out the best in her. The first half, there were two shots, one bounced twice and went in and one bounced three times and went in. It was one of those games for her. We have three All-Americans in this league and she's one of them."
On how the team had problems matching up...
"We seemed to really struggle matchup wise, but I don't want to do anything in here but credit A&M. They really brought their game tonight, set the tone and we struggled."
