By ROBERT CESSNAKANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Even Big 12 Player of the Year Kelsey Griffin and unbeaten Nebraska were no match for the strong-finishing Texas A&M women who again have positioned themselves for a deep run in the NCAA Tournament.
The 11th-ranked Aggies rolled to an 80-70 victory over the third-ranked Cornhuskers before 4,675 at the Big 12 tournament semifinals Saturday afternoon. A&M (24-7) will play 12th-ranked Oklahoma at 12:30 p.m. Saturday for the championship and the league's automatic bid to the NCAA tournament.
Oklahoma defeated Oklahoma State 74-69 in the other semifinal game at Municipal Auditorium.
A&M, which has won eight of its last nine games, is trying to duplicate its title run of two years ago. That earned the Aggies a No. 2 seed for the NCAA tournament which in turn helped A&M reach the Elite Eight for the first time. A&M's victory over Nebraska (30-1) gives the Aggies a chance to earn a No. 2 seed for the third straight year.
The Cornhuskers, who are expected to be a lock for a No. 1 seed along with Connecticut, Stanford and Tennessee, were surprisingly no match for the Aggies. Strong guard play allowed A&M's offense to have one its best games of the season. Point guards Sydney Carter and Sydney Colson combined for 16 points and three assists in helping the Aggies build a 37-27 lead.
"Sometimes, you just gotta let 'em go," A&M head coach Gary Blair said. "But it's our kids. We executed the heck out of our offense today."
A&M's ability to have its guards run the floor opened up the inside for 6-foot-1 junior post Danielle Adams and 6-1 sophomore forward Adaora Elonu who combined for 40 points with each adding a game-high nine rebounds.
"Offensively, they had it going," Nebraska head coach Connie Yori said. "We didn't take anything away from them."
The largest deficit the Cornhuskers had faced this season was 12 points, but it took the Aggies only 13 minutes to top that when Elonu scored on a pass from Carter in transition to give A&M a 32-19 lead.
Elonu, who is shooting 55 percent from the floor in A&M's last nine games, hit four of her first five shots and added six first-half rebounds to help A&M to a 39-28 halftime lead.
Adams had but two points in the first half because she picked up two fouls. She made up for it in the second half by scoring at will in the paint for 20 points.
"I knew I had to come back and be aggressive on the low post," Adams said. "I don't think nobody can stop me. I'm pretty aggressive inside and pretty strong, and my teammates depend on me."
A&M had 19 layups, 13 of them in the second half with seven by Adams.
All the Aggies were aggressive, which led to a 46-32 rebounding edge. Even the diminutive 5-6 Carter had nine rebounds.
"Their guards were getting rebounds because they were able to attack us in transition," Nebraska guard Dominique Kelly said. "It's nothing complicated."
A&M had 33 defensive rebounds with five players having at least four.
"What we did on the boards was outstanding," Blair said. "I was really worried about them blocking us out."
While A&M's offense was shooting 53.1 percent from the field, the Cornhuskers were struggling. Nebraska shot 37.3 percent from the field (22 of 59) with 15 turnovers.
A&M prides itself on pressure defense built around a man-to-man scheme, but the Aggies used a matchup zone which led to a lot of Nebraska misses. The Cornhuskers often were open but seemed to rush shots not knowing where the A&M defenders were coming from.
"It was very effective," Griffin said. "But we're also a lot better shooting team that we've shown at this tournament. I know that my teammates can knock down those shots."
That's what happened when they played in Lincoln, Neb., on Feb. 6. Nebraska hit a trio of 3-pointers to start the game en route to a 71-60 victory.
This time, A&M's Tyra White hit a 3-pointer at the start. The Huskers stayed close early, but they never were able to put A&M on its heels. The high-flying Aggies even threw the ball away 10 times in the first half but never stopped running.
Griffin, who returned from last season's knee injury to lead Nebraska to its best record in school history, scored 15 points on 7-of-13 shooting. The 6-2 senior forward started strong but was limited because of foul trouble.
Griffin hit three straight baskets to put her team in the lead each time, the last at 15-14. But when she took a breather, the Aggies scored seven unanswered points capped by a 3-pointer by Carter just as Griffin re-entered the game. Griffin immediately picked up her second foul, which sent her back to the bench.
Yori had to bring back Griffin when Carter hit a 14-footer to push A&M's lead to 28-18 with 7:42 left in the first half. Griffin picked up her third foul trying for an offensive rebound after Cory Montgomery missed a 3-pointer.
Without Griffin, Nebraska scored only one point in the final 3:32, missing two shots with three turnovers.
"When you're in foul trouble, it's really hard to get in a flow," Griffin said. "I need to be smarter as a senior coming in and playing in foul trouble."
The Cornhuskers were missing more than just Griffin.
Nebraska missed 12 of its first 16 3-pointers which allowed A&M to build an insurmountable 17-point lead.
"We're a lot better 3-point shooting team than we showed," Yori said.
Those shooting woes extended to the free-throw line where Nebraska was 19 of 32.
Montgomery, a 6-2 senior who presents matchup problems, had 18 points in the first meeting. This time she was 4-of-15 shooting, including 1 of 6 on 3-pointers.
Nebraska senior guard Yvonne Turner, the league's Co-Defensive Player of the Year along with Baylor's Brittney Griner, wasn't a factor. She had 14 points and four rebounds, but only two steals. Kelley added 18 points by hitting 11 of 12 free throws.
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