Great support: Texas A&M had about 400 fans in attendance Saturday, which included 40 Aggies living in the Seattle area who reserved a block of tickets.
Former Texas A&M football defensive lineman Red Bryant, who is playing for the Seattle Seahawks, was in the crowd along with his wife, daughter of former A&M/Seattle great Jacob Green.
Half of A&M's pep band, 10 Aggie dance team members and two Yell Leaders also were on hand.
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Good first half, 3s falling: Portland State's 31 first-half points was more than 24 of A&M's opponents managed this season, including California, TCU, Arizona State, Iowa State, Baylor, Oklahoma Nebraska, Oklahoma State (twice) and Texas (three times).
In addition, Portland State's 9 3-pointers were the second most by an A&M opponent this season. Kansas State was 11 of 34.
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Elonu shines, Colson good: A&M sophomore forward Adaora Elonu had 15 points on 4-of-7 shooting. She scored two points in last year's three NCAA games. She was only 3-of-13 shooting against Oklahoma in the Big 12 Tournament title game.
A&M junior guard Sydney Colson scored 13 points, which matched her best effort in seven previous NCAA tournament games.
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Staying loose: Portland State's Katy Wade threw a pass about 12 feet over a teammate's head that cleared the Aggie bench and landed in the stands with A&M holding a 27-24 lead. Wade could only laugh at such a gaffe, and when she turned to the bench, head coach Sherri Murrell was smiling right back.
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Blair's 155th: A&M coach Gary Blair became A&M's all-time leader in coaching victories, passing Lynn Hickey (1984-94). He is 155-73 in his seventh season at A&M. Blair is 21-15 for his career in the NCAA Tournament.
ESPN2 had Blair wired for his halftime speech.
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Close for a half. This is the third straight year the Aggies were a No. 2 seed, and this was its closest first half. A&M had a 49-16 halftime lead over Texas-San Antonio two years ago en route to a 91-52 victory, and it had a 35-24 lead over Evansville last year en route to an 80-45 victory.
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Tough pressure: Portland State was the preseason pick to win the Big Sky but was 9-7 in league play, tying Montana State for fourth place.
Murrell said her team didn't handle pressure well, which showed up in Saturday's game as she looked at them during a timeout.
"When we went up 28-27, the kids had this look in their eyes like, 'The pressure is on us now,'" Murrell said. "When we had that type of pressure, we didn't respond well."
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Prove the president wrong: Murrell said her players weren't too happy with President Obama picking the Aggies over the Vikings. She said Obama was almost wrong for a half, and his health care bill still hasn't passed.
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