Aggie women back on track defensively

  • By Robert Cessna
  • Posted: Tuesday, January 17, 2012 7:00 a.m.
  • Text size: A A A


The Texas A&M women's basketball team picked itself up after a poor defensive effort against Texas by shutting down Iowa State.

A&M held ISU to 28.9-percent shooting from the field (13 of 45), including 23.5 percent on 3-pointers (23.5) in a 59-33 victory.

"What won the ball game was our half-court defense," A&M head coach Gary Blair said. "That looked like last year's team. We have not played that well on defense the whole year."

Last season, A&M finished 51st in scoring defense (57.2 points per game), 113th in field-goal percentage defense (38.4 percent) and 116th in 3-point field goal defense (30.7).

Even with Saturday's superb defensive performance, the Aggies rank only 134th in scoring defense (59.9 ppg), 246th in field-goal percentage defense (40.3) and 301st in 3-point field goal defense (34.8).

It's been a tough season for the Aggies, who built the program on defense. Kansas State hit 16 of its last 24 shots to rally for a 71-69 overtime victory in the Big 12 opener. A&M didn't play much defense in last week's 76-71 home loss to Texas, especially in the first half when UT hit 17 of 32 shots.

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ISU's 33 points were the fewest by a Big 12 opponent in Blair's nine seasons at A&M. And it was the fewest points scored by an ISU team in the 17 seasons Bill Fennelly has been coach.

"Our job as players and coaches is to get better during the season, not just get wins," Blair said. "We made a step in the right direction here."

A&M senior forward Adaora Elonu just missed her third straight double-double with 14 points and nine rebounds.

She played 38 minutes with no turnovers, hitting 6 of 13 shots. The rest of the starters shot only 21.1 percent from the field (11 of 52), but all played good defense.

"We definitely came out intense and with a helping attitude tonight," Elonu said. "We had everyone in the right spots, helping, trying to get up the line and sealing. It's something that we need to continue for the rest of our conference games."

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The Aggies slipped two spots in this week's Associated Press poll to No. 14. Baylor is the unanimous No. 1 pick for the seventh straight week. Other Big 12 teams in the rankings are No. 17 Texas Tech and No. 23 Kansas State.

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