Associated Press
KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Tanisha Smith scored 21 points, and Danielle Adams and Tyra White added 18 apiece as No. 11 Texas A&M used a big second-half run for a 77-64 victory over No. 15 Texas in a Big 12 tournament quarterfinal Friday.
Smith, White and Adams sparked a 20-2 run to build a double-digit lead midway through the second half that put Texas A&M (23-7) in control.
The trio accounted for 35 of the Aggies' first 40 points.
Ashleigh Fontenette scored 21 points for Texas (22-10), but the Longhorns committed 26 turnovers and struggled to score against the Aggies' aggressive defense in the second half.
Fourth-seeded Texas A&M defeated the fifth-seeded Longhorns for the eighth consecutive time, including three meetings this season.
The Aggies last won the Big 12 championship in 2008, the last time the tournament was played in Kansas City. They play undefeated and third-ranked Nebraska on Saturday.
Texas' third-year coach Gail Goestenkors is 0-8 against Texas A&M.
After Fontenette's two free throws gave Texas a 40-38 lead early in the second half, Texas A&M responded with a 20-2 run to build a 16-point lead with 9 minutes left. Smith, White and Adams combined for 13 of the 20 points. Texas went nearly six minutes without a point during the spurt.
Sydney Colson hit a big 3-pointer during the Aggies' run before getting a steal and converting a layup to give Texas A&M a 62-45 lead with 8:07 left.
For 24 minutes stretching from the first half into the second, only Smith, White and Adams scored for the Aggies. They combined to score 29 of Texas A&M's first-half points, including the Aggies' final 27 before halftime.
Smith scored 11 in the first half, while Adams and White added nine apiece.
The three then scored the Aggies' first six points of the second half before Damitria Buchanan made a layup with 14:47 left.
Texas, which had pulled away from 12th-seed Missouri in the final minutes on Thursday, routinely turned the ball over and never appeared comfortable offensively against Texas A&M.
Texas A&M's offense wasn't crisp at times, either.
Adams' layup with 4:45 left in the first half snapped a nearly four-minute scoreless stretch and gave the Aggies a 26-24 lead. Smith then scored four straight points to put Texas A&M in front 30-24.
Texas only trailed 34-30 at the break despite being plagued by turnovers and 39 percent first-half shooting.
Notice about comments:
Theeagle.com is pleased to offer readers the ability to comment on stories. We expect our readers to engage in lively, yet civil discourse. theeagle.com cannot promise that readers will not occasionally find offensive or inaccurate comments posted in the comments area. Responsibility for the statements posted lies with the person submitting the comment, not theeagle.com. If you find a comment that is objectionable, please click "report abuse" and we will review it for possible removal. Please be reminded, however, that in accordance with our Terms of Use and federal law, we are under no obligation to remove any third party comments posted on our website. Full terms and conditions can be read here.
Aggiesports.com is proud to offer our users enhanced commenting features. You can now build user-to-user connections, follow friends’ recent posts, add an avatar that fits your personality and more. If you have posted here before you’ll need to sign up again, and if you’ve never posted start now by signing up! If you've already registered for the new comments on www.theeagle.com then just use your Eagle username to log in and start commenting.