Print story | Email story

Aggies win to open Championship
Photos: A&M-Colorado slideshow | Croome: No. 1 seed does mean something
Notebook: Aggies on a roll against next opponent | Roundup: Iowa State, Oklahoma advance

By ROBERT CESSNA
Eagle Sports Writer

Enlarge photo

Buy this photo Eagle Photo/Butch Ireland Texas A&M's A'Quoneshia Franklin (10) ties up Colorado's Whitney Houston as Houston tries driving to the basket Wednesday. Franklin had 13 points and four assists in the Aggies' 62-45 victory.

OKLAHOMA CITY - Texas A&M point guard A'Quonesia Franklin has a knack for making the best of a bad situation.

An ill-advised pass from a teammate pinned the 5-foot-3 point guard into a corner with time running out on the shot clock. Franklin, who was double-teamed, turned and hoisted up a shot before backing out of bounds.

The ball touched nothing but net, highlighting an 11-0 run midway through the second half that broke open a close game against the Colorado Buffaloes in quarterfinal action of the Big 12 Conference Women's Basketball Championship. Franklin added another 3-pointer during the run that carried the 13th-ranked Aggies to a 62-45 victory Wednesday at the Cox Convention Center.

"We knew we had to break the lead open," Franklin said. "If we didn't, you knew it was going to be a close game, and we didn't want that kind of finish."

Top-seeded A&M (24-5) advances to play fifth-seeded Iowa State (23-7) at 6 p.m. Thursday in the semifinals.

The Cyclones advanced with a 79-76 overtime victory over Nebraska behind all-conference guard Lyndsey Medders, who had 27 points. Medders nailed a game-tying 3-pointer with 1.7 seconds left in regulation to force overtime.

Franklin showed the crowd of 5,787 why the junior earned first-team all-conference honors for the first time in her A&M career. She ignited a sluggish offense by hitting three second-half 3-pointers on only four attempts.

"I got on my Energizer bunny here," A&M head coach Gary Blair said, indicating Franklin after the game. "But she's been able to take me for three years and is going to because the team responds around her."

Franklin's miraculous 3-pointer gave the Aggies a 46-35 lead with 8:23 left, leaving Blair shaking his head on the sidelines.

A&M had been forced to inbounds the ball with 5 seconds left on the shot clock before the shot. Blair called for Patrice Reado to take the inbounds and drive to the basket, but instead, Reado passed to Franklin, who foiled Colorado's air-tight defense.

"No way Reado should have thrown it to her in the corner," Blair said. "She almost threw it to the end line. That [shot] was just a prayer. That was the key shot of the game."

Colorado had a tough time containing Franklin and shooting guard Takia Starks, who had had a team-high 16 points with seven rebounds.

Enlarge photo

Buy this photo Eagle Photo/Butch Ireland Texas A&M's Danielle Gant drives past Colorado's Hannah Skildum in the quarterfinals of the Big 12 Women's Basketball Championship on Wednesday in Oklahoma City. Gant scored seven points in 23 minutes off the bench in A&M's 62-45 win.

"My guards are the heartbeat of this team, because of their decision-making and their ability to create and score and read defenses," Blair said. "And we're only going to go as far as those guards take us."

Starks had a three-point play during the 11-0 run after Colorado had cut a 14-point A&M lead down to 41-35.

"They just stepped up and hit shots," Colorado head coach Kathy McConnell-Miller said. "When they hit the 3s is when they broke it open."

Colorado, which eliminated Texas Tech on Tuesday, hung around despite scoring only 15 first-half points, getting five in the final 35 seconds.

A&M, coming off its first conference championship, struggled to a 26-15 lead. A&M missed all eight 3-point attempts along with coughing up 11 turnovers in the first half.

"We weren't up by more because we didn't play like we should have played," said Starks, who had four turnovers.

A&M looked much better offensively in the second half, limiting its turnovers and getting eight of its 11 assists with better ball movement. With the offense running better and a stout half-court defense, A&M built a 21-point lead.

All-conference junior post Jackie McFarland led Colorado with 17 points and 13 rebounds, but it was a far cry from her 32-point effort against Tech.

"We felt like our strength was inside," McConnell-Miller said. "But we really struggled to get the ball to the wings. We struggled to get the ball inside, and really, their pressure was too much for us."

The 6-3 McFarland was only 4-of-9 shooting. She was guarded most of the time by 6-foot Reado, who scored 13 points.

"I thought [Reado's defense] was the difference in the game because I had nightmares last night of [McFarland] getting 32 again," Blair said.

The Buffaloes struggled to score 32 as a team, shooting a season-low 26.1 percent from the floor (12 of 46).

Jasmine Ilic missed her first nine shots and was 2-of-17 shooting. Guard Whitney Houston was 3 of 10 and had eight of CU's 26 turnovers.

"[You] gotta give all the credit to A&M," McConnell-Miller said. "They're a phenomenal team. They're the type of team that makes it impossible to run your stuff. They denied the wing entries. They denied the post entries. They put an amazing amount of pressure on the basketball."

Blair smiled afterward at the press conference, looking like he doesn't mind the perception of Aggie basketball as a helter-skelter mass of activity.

"It might look a little ugly to you, but we're sitting up here right now, so it's still pretty," he said.