By ROBERT CESSNA
SEATTLE -- Sydney Colson and Danielle Adams came off the bench a little earlier than usual Saturday to spark the ninth-ranked Texas A&M women's basketball team to an 84-53 romp over the Portland State Vikings in first-round NCAA tournament action.
The Aggies (26-7) advance to play Gonzaga on Monday night in second-round action at Bank of America Arena. Seventh-seeded Gonzaga (28-4) advanced with a 82-76 victory over North Carolina in Saturday night's second game on the University of Washington campus.
A&M and Gonzaga played Dec. 20 in the second round of the Las Vegas Holiday Hoops Classic, with the Aggies grabbing an 80-76 victory.
More is at stake this time, with the winner advancing to Sacramento for the regional semifinals. A&M is shooting for its third straight Sweet 16 appearance after only one previously in school history.
The second-seeded Aggies will want a better first half than they had against the 15th-seeded Vikings.
Portland State wiped out an 8-0 deficit to take a 28-27 lead on a fast-break bucket by Eryn Jones. The large contingent of Viking fans among the crowd of 3,656 who made the 150-mile trip down Interstate 5 for the program's first NCAA tournament game stood and cheered.
The Aggies quieted them by ending the half on an 8-0 run for a 39-31 lead. Colson and Adams each had buckets in that streak, and the two also fueled an 18-6 surge that started the second half and gave the Aggies an insurmountable 20-point lead.
Colson opened the last 20 minutes with a 3-pointer. The 6-foot-1 Adams added four layups in 6 minutes as A&M raced to a 57-37 lead.
Adams, a transfer from Jefferson College (Mo.), had a slow start to the season with a pulled hamstring. She worked her way into the starting lineup early in Big 12 play. But after A&M lost four of five league games to drop from title contention, A&M head coach Gary Blair opted to bring Adams off the bench, a strategy that had worked for a 14-1 start.
A&M has won 10 of its last 11, which also coincides with sophomore Sydney Carter becoming the starting point guard in place of Colson, who missed four games with a stress reaction in her left fibula.
Blair would prefer to start Colson, but she has teamed up with Adams for instant offense. The two helped A&M have a 42-15 edge over Portland State in bench points.
Adams, the Big 12's Newcomer of the Year, ended with a game-high 23 points. She hit 8 of 13 shots from close range as the Aggies had a 52-16 scoring edge in the paint.
Senior wing Tanisha Smith added 17 points, 10 rebounds and a career-high nine assists, just missing a triple-double. Sophomore forward Adaora Elonu added 15 points.
Colson scored 13 points in only 19 minutes. She hit 5 of 7 shots and added two assists. She is 13-of-19 shooting in the last four games.
Colson and Adams came off the bench just 6:33 into the game with A&M's lead down to 12-10.
"I just felt like we needed a jump-start," Blair said. "We weren't holding them on defense, so I was trying to bring in more offense to try and trade baskets until we could correct our defensive problems."
Portland State (18-15) hit five 3-pointers and took advantage of some sloppy A&M ballhandling to stay in the game for a half.
That all changed in the second half.
"We gave them everything we had, unfortunately, it was just in one half," Portland State head coach Sherri Murrell said.
A&M was able to contain Portland State senior point guard Claire Faucher, who missed 11 of 14 3-pointers. She finished with 15 points and seven assists, but also had seven turnovers.
Faucher took a nasty fall late in the first half while denying Elonu a fast-break layup on a full-court pass from Colson. Murrell said Faucher wasn't quite the same in the second half. Faucher, who was the Big Sky tournament's Most Valuable Player, was 3-of-6 shooting in the first half with five assists.
"All I remember is trying to make a play on the ball and the next thing I remember is my head was just pounding," Faucher said. "I don't know what I hit. That will be fun to watch on replays."
The Vikings struggled without Faucher able to score. Portland State hit only 9 of 32 shots in the second half.
"Our pressure bothered them a little, tired them out and forced some turnovers," Blair said.
A&M had a whopping 48-32 rebounding edge.
"Their size, those are some girls that we're not used to playing against and I think they wore us down," Faucher said.
A&M had only two turnovers in the second half and hit 16 of 29 field-goal attempts.
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