By ROBERT CESSNA
The harder the Texas A&M women's basketball team played Tuesday, the harder head trainer Mike "Radar" Ricke had to work.
The 10th-ranked Aggies rolled to 108-49 victory over North Texas at Reed Arena, overwhelming the Mean Green with their aggressive style that put a smile on A&M head coach Gary Blair's face. But that same style caused his heart rate to skyrocket three times when key players left with injuries and didn't return.
The most concerning was junior point guard Sydney Colson re-injuring the right knee that needed surgery before last season to repair a torn ACL suffered in June 2008.
Colson buckled to the floor after hitting a 3-pointer with 11 minutes, 15 seconds left to push A&M's lead to 77-27. Colson's screams quieted the crowd of 3,144 as Ricke and the coaching staff rushed to help.
"Nobody touched her," Blair said. "She just stepped back and kinda came down on the foot and sort of twisted the knee. You hope that it's just hyper-extended. We couldn't get the knee relaxed enough for the doctor or trainer to look at it. It's just too tight."
Team orthopedic surgeon J.B. Bramhall will examine the knee Wednesday.
The other injuries were just as frightful when they occurred, but luckily weren't as severe.
Junior Danielle Adams, the team's second-leading scorer, experienced concussion-like symptoms after taking a charge less than six minutes into the game.
"She banged her head on the floor," Blair said. "She couldn't get cleared [to play]. She said at halftime she was ready to go, but you've got to have X amount of time and it took her too long. I think it took her about 40 minutes or so to get clear of symptoms. Today, you gotta be sure."
Sophomore Sydney Carter re-injured her right thumb with 2:35 left in the first half. Carter, who starts at the No. 2 guard and spells Colson at the point at times, was grimacing as Ricke helped her to the bench.
"It's a sprained thumb," Blair said. "It's the same thing. She's all over the court, so she has to play defense with her hands and feet, but she'll be fine. It's just very painful."
A&M's style of play didn't change because of the injuries, which made for a painful night for UNT's ballhandlers.
The Aggies scored 54 points off 37 turnovers as five Mean Green players had more turnovers than points.
"Our kids came ready to play," Blair said.
A&M (7-0) put the game away midway through the first half with a 25-4 run as senior offguard Tanisha Smith and senior post Damitria Buchanan combined for 14 points.
Smith had no problem finding holes in UNT's zone defense, nor did the Mean Green have enough muscle inside to contain the 6-foot Buchanan.
Smith had 12 of her game-high 16 points in the first half as A&M took a 56-22 lead. The 34-point intermission lead was A&M's largest of the season and the biggest deficit for UNT (3-7).
Buchanan ended up with 15 points. She'd already set a career high for points in a game with 11 in the first half.
Smith and Buchanan took it easy offensively in the second half, but kept playing well. Buchanan finished with six rebounds and three blocks. Smith had seven assists, which tied her career best.
A&M had six reserves play at least 11 minutes as the bench matched UNT's 49 points.
"Our bench played better than it has all year," Blair said.
Freshman forward Kristi Bellock had 10 points as did sophomore guard Skylar Collins.
Junior guard Maryann Baker played a career-high 18 minutes. She had 10 rebounds -- which doubled her previous career high -- and added four steals and four assists. She also had to set a record for diving on the floor with her intensity, even though she wears a knee brace and shoulder brace because of previous injuries.
Baker said associate head coach Vic Schaefer has taught the Aggies to take it one play at a time, not worrying about the score or if you might get hurt.
"It's a second nature for us to play hard, to deny the passes and rebound, and everything like that," Baker said. "When we see a player go down, obviously, it's a blow to us. But the people out there still have to play hard because if that person is out for the season or another game, someone has to step up."
That certainly was the case against UNT, as 14 Aggies scored. A&M shot a sizzling 57 percent from the field (45 of 79), scoring 54 points in the paint.
UNT shot only 25.5 percent from the floor (13 of 51). The Mean Green scored on back-to-back possessions to stay within a point in the first five minutes, but didn't repeat that feat until A&M had a 104-49 lead.
A&M, which won the Colliers Classic in Berkeley over the weekend, will get a much needed day off Wednesday. Blair is hopeful he'll have a healthy team for Saturday's game at Texas Christian and a smart team for final exams next week.
"Radar has to solve a lot of problems for us," Blair said. "He cares and he's a great trainer. Right now, Radar's the most important man for us. Next is Ingrid [Villar-Woods], our academic person, getting ready for finals.
"Both of them -- their jobs are on the line," he said with a laugh.
Blair might have to take Ricke and Villar-Woods to his Rotary luncheon on Wednesday. He had scheduled Adams and Carter to demonstrate to the crowd how to take a charge.
"Now, I gotta go to Plan B," he said.
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