Danielle Adams scored 23 points, and Sydney Colson and Tyra White each added 14 as No. 8 Texas A&M cruised past turnover-prone Texas 77-50 on Wednesday night to advance to the semifinals of the Big 12 tournament.
Texas committed 31 turnovers, one shy of the tournament record, and was held to its lowest points total of the season.
The Aggies (27-4), the tournament’s No. 2 seed, will play Oklahoma on Friday at 2:30 p.m. OU beat Texas Tech 71-69 in later quarterfinal. Texas A&M defeated its rival for the third time this season, and the tournament win was the most convincing of the three.
Chelsea Bass came off the bench to lead Texas (19-13) with 11 points.
Texas A&M’s stifling perimeter pressure proved more than Texas, which beat Missouri in the previous round, could handle in a first half dominated by the Aggies. Texas A&M scored 23 points off 17 turnovers over the first 20 minutes and never let the Longhorns guards get comfortable.
The Aggies had 11 steals in the first half, with Sydney Carter and Colson getting three apiece. With the transition points coming in abundance, Texas A&M shot 53.3 percent in the first half and sprinted to a 41-24 lead.
Adams and White, both from Kansas City, had typically strong efforts in their homecoming. Colson also helped set the tone early with 12 points on 5-of-7 shooting in the first half.
After watching top-seeded and No. 3-ranked Baylor look extremely sharp earlier in the day, the Aggies also provided a glimpse of why they came into the tournament with a No. 5 national ranking.
Texas shot just 28 percent from the floor in the first half and coach Gail Goestenkors challenged her team at halftime to take better care of the ball.
The Longhorns must now wait to see if they will be invited to the NCAA tournament with an at-large berth.
POSTGAME NOTES
• For the 20th 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 16-4 with this starting lineup.
• Texas A&M improved to 23-58 in the all-times series with Texas. The Aggies have now won 11 straight including 13 out of the last 14 meetings between the two storied rivals. For the second straight season, A&M beat the Longhorns three times.
• The Aggies move to 3-1 all-time against Texas in the Big 12 Championship, 6-1 all-time in the quarterfinals and 12-12 overall in all Big 12 Championship games.
• The 27-point victory was Texas A&M’s largest margin of victory all-time against Texas and its largest in a Big 12 Championship game. It is also the sixth largest margin of victory by a team ever in a Big 12 quarterfinal contest and tied for seventh in all-time Big 12 Championship contests. In eight of the last nine contests against the Longhorns, the Aggies have won by double digits.
• Texas A&M forced Texas into 31 turnovers, which ranks as the second most turnovers in all-time Big 12 Championship games and the most in Big 12 quarterfinal contests. The Aggies also recorded 15 steals, which is tied for sixth most in all-time Big 12 Championship games and tied for third in Big 12 quarterfinal contests.
• A&M held the Longhorns to just 28 percent shooting in the first half which was its opponent’s lowest first-half field goal percentage since holding UT to just 22 percent shooting in the first half on Feb. 27.
• The Aggies shot a season-best 75 percent (3-of-4) from beyond the arc in the first half and 53 percent (16-of-30) from the floor, which was its best field goal percentage in the first half since shooting 57 percent against ULM on Jan. 4.
• The Aggies outscored Texas 18-0 in fast break points and 37-9 off of turnovers.
• A&M held UT to just 32 percent from the field and 16 percent from beyond the arc.
• Sydney Colson matched her first-half career high with 12 points and reached double figures for the eighth time this season. She matched a season high with five steals.
• Danielle Adams has now reached double figures 38 of her last 39 games.
• Tyra White tallied her 22nd double-digit scoring performance this season.
POSTGAME QUOTES
HEAD COACH Gary Blair
On the game…
“That was the best defensive game we’ve played in a long time, and the energy was there. We had great point guard play in transition, and really on half-court offense. But most of the first half we were just simply in a transition game. If we hadn’t missed about five lay-ups it might have been over by the half, but we made a couple of bad decisions. Overall, I’m pleased with our team. We said we have to have balanced scoring, we cannot just rely on Danielle (Adams) and we almost had five in double figures. (Adaora) Elonu did a lot of nice things in there for us, and it goes unnoticed. Tyra (White) is a scoring machine, but we didn’t need her shots. If they would have played us more man-to-man, we would have been going to Tyra a whole lot, but they were doing a good job mixing up their defenses. What we did on (Chassidy) Fussell and (Kathleen) Nash, I thought that was the key to the ballgame, and we took charges. That’s Aggie defense. That’s Coach Schaefer defense, and he’s the best at teaching it, and our kids might be the best at executing it. I’m very proud.”
On Danielle Adams’ performance…
“I thought she was solid. They were double teaming her a lot and sometimes she was giving it up. We got the easy pass underneath and she was very unselfish. Yeah, she had some turnovers and Carter had some turnovers, and Colson had some turnovers. We’d like to do better, but Adams is going to take what the defense is going to give her. I really emphasized and talked about how well Baylor played today without Griner having to get 30. That’s what we want from our team. Let them spend a lot of attention on Adams. Then you have little White, a little Gilbert coming off the bench and Colson is starting to find the seams of the defense. That is the key right now is Colson, not Adams, but Colson is playing more under control and attacking the basket.”
On winning 11-in-a-row against Texas and if it means more because of the rivalry of the two schools…
“It’s supposed to, but right now we just happen to have their number, and Baylor sort of has our number right now. We need to change that up. You give me a couple of wins against them; I’ll give you a couple Texas wins. Well, maybe not. But that’s what I want to do. I just want to play hard. Our goal was to come in and get better. Survive and advance, but get better today. Like I said, this was the best defensive game we’ve played in a long time.”
SENIOR FORWARD/CENTER Danielle Adams
On if it is different coming back home and playing and for the second tournament in a row…
“No, it’s not a different feeling. We just have a better team this year. We’re playing more aggressive on defense and just trying to repeat our tournament championship. But it’s no different than last year or any other year that we’ve been in Kansas City. We’re just looking forward to playing each game, game-by-game instead of just looking forward to the tournament championship. But it’s no different at all.”
On the loss at Kansas State and if tonight was a response on that loss…
“We talked about it. We all agreed that we needed that loss. We went out and played our hearts out, but as a team we knew we needed that and we just looked past it and looked for it in this game in the tournament. It was a great fight tonight, but it was a great loss at that.”
SENIOR GUARD Sydney Colson
On A&M being so good into forcing Texas turnovers…
“I think just like another team we play, we like to come in and come out with a lot of aggression on defense. Just doing things that we wanted to correct the mistakes we made in the second half when we played them in Austin. They came out and scored 48 against us. We knew we had to come out and keep up the intensity we had the first half. Our posts did an excellent job hedging on-ball screens for us. Our guards were getting out and denying passes on the wings. When we’re playing like that, it really helps us convert in fast break points and I couldn’t be more pleased in the way we played today defensively.”
On the loss at Kansas State and if tonight was a response on that loss…
“I think in that game it had been coming for a while. We had been playing a lot of teams closely, even at home. We weren’t coming out with the intensity we played with early in the season, and early in conference. We just weren’t doing a lot of things correctly. We were out of character. They came out and took advantage of us not playing well. Their point guard had an excellent game and other people stepped up for them. I think it woke us up in a sense. I think that it helped us get our minds on what matters and knowing that we need to come out and play hard every game no matter who is in front of us. I think that we responded on Senior Night when we played Nebraska, and we responded today.”
On winning 11-in-a-row against Texas…
“I think it’s a big deal when you have that streak going against anybody. We came out here and we were in Austin saying it was a big deal for our program to go out and get ten wins in-a-row against any program. But today, Coach said, `I didn’t think we’d see it again, but I’m asking you for the 11th one.’ We came out and fought hard like any other team. It happened to be against Texas. I’m just proud of the fight no matter what.”
JUNIOR GUARD Tyra White
On if it is different coming back home and playing and for the second tournament in a row…
“Going along with what Danielle said, there is really no difference playing here or College Station or playing in Austin. We just want to come out every game and force turnovers. I think we did that a lot and cut down our turnovers too. Besides our family being here, it’s just another game for us.”