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No. 6 Texas A&M Downs UALR, 83-54
LITTLE
ROCK, ARK. (AP) — Kelsey Bone had 16 points and eight rebounds to lead
No. 6 Texas A&M to an 83-54 win over Arkansas-Little Rock on
Thursday night.
Sydney Carter and Adaora Elonu scored 15 points each.
Freshman Taylor Gault led Little Rock with 23 points, and Janette Merriex scored 13.
Texas
A&M got off to a slow start, allowing UALR to hit four of its first
five shots, including three 3-pointers, and jump to an 11-8 lead. But
the Trojans (1-2) made one field goal over the next 6:51 and the Aggies
took control.
Taylor Gault's lay-up gave UALR a 13-12 lead
with 14:06 left in the half. Carter scored eight as the Aggies put
together a 13-0 run to take control of the game. The Aggies led 45-23.
UALR had 24 turnovers and the Aggies outscored the Trojans 31-8 off turnovers and 24-7 on second-chance points.
Skylar Collins added 14 points and Tyra White with 12 for the Aggies.
POSTGAME NOTES
TEAM NOTES
•
Texas A&M used the starting lineup of Adrienne Pratcher, Sydney
Carter, Tyra White, Adaora Elonu and Kelsey Bone… It marked the third
start of Bone’s Aggie career, the fourth career start for Pratcher,
57th for Carter, 74th for White and 77th for Elonu.
• Texas A&M
improves to 5-1 in the all-time series with UALR and has now won the
last five straight games between the two teams.
• Texas A&M
outrebounded UALR 42-31, including 22-11 in offensive boards. At the
end of the first half, A&M had as many offensive rebounds (13) as
UALR did total rebounds (13).
• Texas A&M lead by as many as 32 in the second half.
• The Aggies outscored the Trojans in the paint 38-18.
INDIVIDUAL NOTES
• White has now started in 61 straight games, a streak that started on Jan. 4, 2010 against Lamar.
• White has also scored double figures in her last 12 games (which includes nine from last season)
•
Skylar Collins scored a career-high 14 points going 5-of-7 from the
floor, 1-of-2 from beyond the arc and 3-for-3 from the free-throw line.
• Kelsey Bone’s 16 points were an A&M career high.
• Elonu’s nearly had a double-double with 14 points and nine rebounds.
• Blair is just one win away from 600 career wins (599-242).
POSTGAME QUOTES
A&M HEAD COACH GARY BLAIR
Opening Statement
“Number
24 (Taylor Gault) hit some big shots early and we lost on some player
screens. Our scouting report had no idea she was that good. UALR is
going to be very good in the Sun Belt Conference, but how you get good
is playing the competition that Joe (Foley, UALR head coach) is playing
now. I just have so much respect for him.
“It was a good
game for us. I liked my team tonight. They responded after UALR gave us
a great shot in the first four minutes and I thought we played very
well.”
On Kelsey Bone’s play:
“Bone’s a force, but
she’s a work in progress on the defensive end. To be a true
All-American like she’s capable of being, we will get her better on the
defensive end. She’s just a sophomore (athletically) and has been off
for a year. We’re teaching her.”
On Skylar Collins play:
“Collins
came off the bench for us, hit her first shot and that just got her.
She’s a senior who has sat on the bench for so long and is finally
getting her chance.”
SENIOR GUARD SYDNEY CARTER
On the game:
“I
think we did an overall good job. We still have some kinks to work out
on the defensive end and we need to have more balance on the offensive
end. Skylar here did a really good job. She was ready when he (Coach
Blair) called her number. She answered the call and that’s what we need
– our bench to step up in games like this. Overall, we did a good job.
I don’t think we dominated like we should have, but we’ll get better.”
On A&M’s defensive pressure:
“That’s
every night. That’s just the way we play here at A&M. We try to
fluster people as much as possible and try to make them as
uncomfortable as possible. We don’t do it any other way and there’s no
way to get ready for our pressure. That’s our goal every game.”
SENIOR GUARD SKYLAR COLLINS:
On the game early on:
“Early
on they caught us off guard jumping out to a quick lead with some early
jumpers, but overall I think we responded to their offense pretty well.
Once we got settled down we did a good job of talking on the defensive
end and getting those back screens covered with good ball pressure.”
On the inside-out game:
“We
really wanted to get the ball inside in the second half and let our
bigs go to work, because we didn’t think they (UALR) had an answer to
our inside game. Once they started collapsing on our bigs, our shooters
were loaded and ready to fire. We really tried to take advantage of
that situation.”
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