Big 12 Basketball: Solid Aggie defense stifles the Longhorns

posted by anngaff, a Women Talk Sports blogger
Wednesday, March 9, 2011 at 9:03pm EST

About anngaff:

Chief Technical Officer, Women Talk Sports. I competed in Track & Field and Cross-Country in college at the University of Nebraska and competed professionally in Track & Field (3000m Steeplechase) fr...more

Losing to Kansas State last week provided Coach Gary Blair and the Texas A&M Aggies a perfectly-timed wake-up call as they rounded the corner toward postseason play. The Aggies overwhelmed the Texas Longhorns with high-pressure defense and came out with a 77-50 win in the 2nd round of the Big 12 Basketball Championships in Kansas City this evening.

"That game was a long time coming," said senior guard Sydney Colson of the loss to the Wildcats, "We'd had some close games and just weren’t doing a lot of things correctly. They came out and took advantage of that. I think it woke us up in a sense and get our minds on what mattered."

"We all agreed we needed that loss," added senior center Danielle Adams.

The Aggies came out with an aggressive defense from the start, forcing 31 turnovers by the Longhorns by the final buzzer.

"That was the best defensive play we’ve seen all year from a team, credit to them for that," Texas Coach Gail Goestenkors said, "I'm very disappointed with the way we handled the pressure. Obviously 31 turnovers...I told the team, you gotta do the little things well against good teams. Overall I'm really disappointed with our lack of valuing the basketball.”

"We allowed their pressure to mess with us. They weren’t necessarily stealing, we were throwing it to them almost. We just let them get in our heads tonight," said Texas junior guard Yvonne Anderson.

Texas was held to a field goal percentage of 32% with the 3-point field goal percentage a lowly 15.8%.

"Our defensive game was great. We did have some mistakes though. Colson is the only one allowed to do the behind-the-back pass, that will be a new rule put in," quipped A&M Coach Gary Blair, "We hope Kansas State can wear Baylor down a bit [on Friday]. Give Deb Patterson credit. She does not get credit for the success she's had [at Kansas State]. Do you know she's had eight WNBA players? Eight!!"

A&M will play the winner of Oklahoma vs Texas Tech in Friday's 2:30pm semifinal.

Check our Big 12 Basketball Championships coverage for more updates.

Also follow me (@anngaff), Cheryl Coward of HoopFeed.com (@hoopfeed) through the final on Saturday.

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Big 12 Basketball: Solid Aggie defense stifles the Longhorns

March Madness 2011

Big 12 Basketball Championships
March 8 - 12, 2011

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Big 12 Basketball: Solid Aggie defense stifles the Longhorns

March Madness 2011

Big 12 Basketball ChampionshipsMarch 8 - 12, 2011

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Big 12 Basketball Championships
March 8 - 12, 2011