Aggie women look to bounce back at last-place Mizzou

  • By ROBERT CESSNA

  • Posted: Tuesday, February 14, 2012 7:00 a.m.
  • Text size: A A A


The Texas A&M women's basketball players will be watching video on the chartered flight to Missouri on Tuesday that at times might be hard to view because Aggie head coach Gary Blair has choreographically put together snippets of Saturday's 71-48 Big 12 loss at top-ranked Baylor.


"I broke down each player individually -- not what they did good because that would have been a short documentary," Blair said. "This is a full-length major film on what we didn't do well. I will watch it with each kid and some of them might take a little longer than others."


A&M senior wing Tyra White was the only Aggie who got a favorable review against Baylor. She had 18 points on 9-of-18 shooting, most times creating her shots.


The other starters had more turnovers (9) than baskets (8) and the bench was 1-of-12 shooting.


"It was very similar to us losing at Connecticut," Blair said of an 81-51 loss on Dec, 6. "We are not that level, but who is at that level?


"We're not giving up on the season because we lost to the best team in the country. We're looking at it as a learning experience. It was a very humbling game, but let's turn the page and go on."


The 14th-ranked Aggies (17-6, 8-4) are tied with Oklahoma (16-8, 8-4) for second place in the Big 12 with six games left in the regular season.


A&M, which had won seven of its last eight heading into Baylor, has a manageable schedule. The Aggies go to Oklahoma on Feb. 21 and play Baylor on Feb. 27, but the other four games are against teams with losing league records, starting with the Missouri Tigers (10-13, 0-12).


A&M grabbed a 78-52 victory over Missouri on Jan. 18, but the Tigers have come close to winning three times since, including a 64-60 loss at Oklahoma.


"They are hungry and they play with a great deal of confidence," Oklahoma head coach Sherri Coale said. "Unless you have ever been in that situation you don't know what a difficult thing that is for a coach to do -- to get a team to play with that kind of belief. I am really impressed with how they compete. We are very fortunate to get away with this win."


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A&M to host in 2013: Texas A&M has been picked to play host to first- and second-round NCAA Tournament games in 2013.


There will be first- and second-round games at Reed Arena next month, the first time the Aggies have played host to the NCAA Tournament since 1994.


"We're able to be chosen twice in a three-year period and I think the NCAA Division I Women's Basketball Committee has done a good job selecting the sites," Blair said. "I think they went back to the basics and selected basketball towns where nearly every team that is hosting in 2013 will be in the NCAA Tournament this year. I think the attendance records will be blown out of the water at these sites. The state of Texas is host to three sites and no other state has more than one. That really tells you where basketball is in the state."


Waco and Lubbock also were picked to play host to games in 2013 along with Baton Rouge, La.; Boulder, Colo.; College Park, Md.; Columbus, Ohio; Durham, N.C.; Iowa City, Iowa; Knoxville, Tenn.; Louisville, Ky.; Newark, Del.; Queens, N.Y.; Spokane, Wash.; Stanford, Calif.; and Storrs, Conn. The four selected regional sites for 2013 are Norfolk, Va.; Oklahoma City; Spokane, Wash., and Trenton, N.J.


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A&M has won eight straight against Missouri, which is accompanying the Aggies into the Southeastern Conference next season. ... This will be Missouri's Breast Cancer Awareness Game, with proceeds going to the Susan G. Komen Foundation and Play for Kay. ... A&M's 6th Annual Beat the Hell Outta Breast Cancer game will be Saturday against Oklahoma State. A&M's goal is to raise $35,000.


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Missouri's leading scorers, BreAnne Brock and Christine Flores, combined for only 25 points in the first meeting against A&M with Flores shooting only 4 of 13 from the field.


Brock had 20 points and 10 rebounds against OU which allowed the Tigers to attempt a game-tying 3-pointer with 6 seconds left. Missouri had to play the last 2 minutes, 30 seconds without Flores who fouled out with 14 points and seven rebounds.

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