
The 2nd seed Texas A&M is going to the NCAA Sweet 16 for the third time in four years. The Aggies defeated Rutgers 70-48 Tuesday in Bossier City and advance to Dallas next weekend for the Regional. Danielle Adams led A&M with 26 points. A&M will meet Georgia in the Regional semi-finals Sunday at 3:30 p.m. at American Airlines Arena. Georgia scored with 2 seconds left to beat Florida State 60-59.
AP Story —
Danielle Adams’ dominance on the inside and her accuracy from the perimeter was too much for Rutgers to handle.
Adams had 28 points and 11 rebounds Tuesday night, and Texas A&M stormed into the regional semifinals of the NCAA tournament with a 70-48 victory over Rutgers.
Sydney Carter added 14 points and Tyra White had 11 for the second-seeded Aggies (29-5), who were upset in last year’s second round but this time have strung together victory margins of 20-plus points in each of their first two tournament games.
April Sykes scored 21 for seventh-seeded Rutgers (20-13) which stayed close for the first 15 minutes of the game before the Aggies began to take command. Erica Wheeler added 12 points for the Scarlet Knights, who were held to 35.8 percent shooting (19 of 53), while A&M shot 46.2 percent 24 of 52).
The Aggies move on to Dallas for their regional-semifinal game next weekend against Georgia, which advanced with a 61-59 victory over Florida State on Tuesday night.
Adams established her all-court game immediately, hitting a 3 less than 2 minutes into the game and using a strong baseline drive for a layup shortly after.
With Sykes scoring 14 in the first half for Rutgers, the Scarlet Knights were able to stay close and were down only 24-21 after Khadijah Rushdan’s layup with 5:50 left before halftime.
Adams had 16 points in the opening 20 minutes, and Texas A&M began to pull away when she hit a turnaround jumper on the baseline and added her second 3, giving the Aggies a 32-24 lead going into the locker room.
The Aggies opened up their first double-digit lead when fast-break layups by White and Carter made it 36-24 early in the second half. Carter added a transition jumper and a pair of free throws during a 7-0 run that put the Aggies in command at 47-29.
Wheeler snapped that run with a 3, but Sydney Colson responded with a 3 of her own as the shot clock wound down. Adams followed that with a layup on a feed from Adrienne Pratcher, then Adams scored again on a putback to make it 54-32 with 9:23 left.
After that, Rutgers started pressing on defense and held A&M scoreless for several minutes, but the Aggies’ defense was too good to allow the Scarlet Knights to do much more than briefly chip away before A&M started to pull away again late.
POSTGAME NOTES
• For the 24th 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 19-5 with this starting lineup.
• Texas A&M moves to 2-0 in the all-time series with Rutgers.
• The Aggies improve to 11-7 all-time in NCAA postseason play in their eighth all-time NCAA Tournament appearance. They improve to 4-2 all-time in the NCAA Second Round.
• Texas A&M head coach Gary Blair is now 9-5 at A&M and 23-16 in his career in NCAA Tournament games.
• With 29 wins, the Aggies have matched a school record for most wins in a single season.
• The Aggies return to the Sweet 16 for the fourth time in program history and for the first time since 2009.
• With nine blocked shots, A&M tallied the most blocked shots in an NCAA Tournament game.
• Danielle Adams’ 28 points were the most scored by an Aggie in an NCAA Tournament game.
• Danielle Adams moved into eighth place on A&M’s career scoring list with 1,311 points.
• Danielle Adams posted her 14th double-double this season and the 17th of her career on Tuesday. She has now scored in double figures in 42 of her last 43 games and had a 20-point performance for the 20th time this year.
• With 11 rebounds, Adams climbed to second on the single season list (291).
• With three blocked shots, Adams moved into fifth place on A&M’s career blocked shots list (91) and fifth on A&M’s season blocked shots chart (46).
• With five assists, Sydney Colson became just the second A&M player all-time to reach 200 assists in a single season (202). It was only the fourth occurrence in program history next to three straight 200-assist seasons by Lisa Branch (94-96).
• Sydney Colson also moved to fourth on A&M’s career assist chart (485) and to third on A&M’s single season list (202).
• With 11 points, Tyra White passed 1,000 career points (1,003). She was the 23rd A&M player to reach this achievement.
• The Aggies are set to tipoff at 3:34 p.m. (CT) on Sunday, March 27 at American Airlines Center.
• Tickets for Dallas are available now. Fans are asked to request tickets through the 12th Man Foundation Ticket Center online at www.12thManFoundation.com or by phone at 1-888-99-AGGIE.