16 Ags Play in Rout of Rice
COLLEGE STATION, TX -- The Texas A&M Aggies and the Rice Owls are in two very, very different places right now. Though both squads are young, the Aggies are taller and more athletic. Tuesday, the Aggies took full advantage of their height and athleticism advantage to defeat the Owls 86 to 50 in front of 3,834 fans gathered inside Reed Arena.
Sixteen Aggies were in uniform for the game. All Sixteen of them played in the game.
No Aggie player played more than 22 minutes -- senior wing Tanisha Smith (6'0").
Smith scored 14 points on 5 for 9 shooting from the field.
The Aggies started the game slowly; but, Smith scored 12 of her 14 points in the first half to help kick start the Owls and help the Aggies to a 47 to 22 lead at halftime.
"Their (Rice) guards were way shorter than us," Smith said after the game. "We had an advantage in the guard position just shooting over them and going to the rack. In the timeout (early in the game), Coach (Gary Blair) talked to us and then we got it going."
Danielle Adams (6'1") led the Aggies with a game-high 15 points off the bench. Adams added four rebounds; four assists; 1 blocked shot; and 1 steal for good measure.
"I thought we played very well in spots in the first half," said Coach Blair after the game. "It took a while for us to get started because sometimes we were open too much and everybody started firing it up. After a couple of timeouts, we just started running set plays; trying to get the ball inside more.
"Danielle had plenty of shots; but, she's just got to work on it. I think you were able to see some of the other things that she can do. She can do a lot; but, this team was pretty short that we were playing."
The Aggies (2-0) head to the road and play Auburn on Sunday, November 22.
"We'll be going against Auburn who has 6'7" (KeKe Carrier) and 6'8" (Pascale West). Whether or not they start those two or not, I imagine we'll see Carrier a lot in that game."
"Now, obviously, we wanted to play a lot of kids because we're going to go on the road," added Coach Blair. "And, probably, you're not going to see too many of them in there; but, this was a game for our freshmen to get their feet wet."
Coach Blair got what he wanted out of the game.
"A 'w'. Playing 16 kids. Our freshmen, believe it or not, looked better in this game than they did in the last game (Sunday versus Duke); but, they were not playing the number six team in the country.
"Remember, two years ago or three years ago, we beat Rice 65 to 64 (January 2, 2006) here when they had those two post players (Lauren Neaves and Valeriya Berezhynska) that are now playing overseas and playing very well. Then (the next season, December 1, 2006), we went down to Rice and got beat by 13 and Morenike (Atunrase) got hurt. It wouldn't have mattered whethered Morenike got hurt or not. They just flat kicked us. Greg (Owls head coach Greg Williams) is an excellent coach. He just needs to develop some of those kids. Everything cycles. He'll get it going again."
Sixteen Aggies were in uniform for the game. All Sixteen of them played in the game.
No Aggie player played more than 22 minutes -- senior wing Tanisha Smith (6'0").
Smith scored 14 points on 5 for 9 shooting from the field.
The Aggies started the game slowly; but, Smith scored 12 of her 14 points in the first half to help kick start the Owls and help the Aggies to a 47 to 22 lead at halftime.
"Their (Rice) guards were way shorter than us," Smith said after the game. "We had an advantage in the guard position just shooting over them and going to the rack. In the timeout (early in the game), Coach (Gary Blair) talked to us and then we got it going."
Danielle Adams (6'1") led the Aggies with a game-high 15 points off the bench. Adams added four rebounds; four assists; 1 blocked shot; and 1 steal for good measure.
"I thought we played very well in spots in the first half," said Coach Blair after the game. "It took a while for us to get started because sometimes we were open too much and everybody started firing it up. After a couple of timeouts, we just started running set plays; trying to get the ball inside more.
"Danielle had plenty of shots; but, she's just got to work on it. I think you were able to see some of the other things that she can do. She can do a lot; but, this team was pretty short that we were playing."
The Aggies (2-0) head to the road and play Auburn on Sunday, November 22.
"We'll be going against Auburn who has 6'7" (KeKe Carrier) and 6'8" (Pascale West). Whether or not they start those two or not, I imagine we'll see Carrier a lot in that game."
"Now, obviously, we wanted to play a lot of kids because we're going to go on the road," added Coach Blair. "And, probably, you're not going to see too many of them in there; but, this was a game for our freshmen to get their feet wet."
Coach Blair got what he wanted out of the game.
"A 'w'. Playing 16 kids. Our freshmen, believe it or not, looked better in this game than they did in the last game (Sunday versus Duke); but, they were not playing the number six team in the country.
"Remember, two years ago or three years ago, we beat Rice 65 to 64 (January 2, 2006) here when they had those two post players (Lauren Neaves and Valeriya Berezhynska) that are now playing overseas and playing very well. Then (the next season, December 1, 2006), we went down to Rice and got beat by 13 and Morenike (Atunrase) got hurt. It wouldn't have mattered whethered Morenike got hurt or not. They just flat kicked us. Greg (Owls head coach Greg Williams) is an excellent coach. He just needs to develop some of those kids. Everything cycles. He'll get it going again."
posted by Kris G @ 1:00 AM
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