#6 Texas A&M 76, #9 Louisville 58
November 15, 2011
COLLEGE STATION, TX (Reed Arena) -- The Texas A&M Aggies celebrated the raising of their national championship banner Tuesday afternoon with a 76-58 victory over the ninth-ranked Louisville Cardinals in front of an announced crowd of 6,943 fans gathered inside Reed Arena.
The game was hyped as a match up between to top ten teams; however, injuries to two starters (Monique Reid and Tia Gibbs) and an NCAA-imposed suspension to another starter (point guard Shoni Schimmel), limited the Cardinals and erased high expectations for the ball game. The defending national champions are not a team to face without your top options.
"Louisville is a very good ball club, but we did not play all of Louisville," Gary Blair, Texas A&M's head coach said after the game. "They had three starters out. Instead of a 20-point ball game, it would've been right down to the wire."
Louisville head coach, Jeff Walz, praised the Aggies for their performance; and, Coach Walz did not make excuses for his team being short-handed.
They're fantastic, they play hard, they deny and they're aggressive," said Coach Walz. "I thought we handled the initial pressure well. We got them out of pressing full court, but once we got the ball across full court, it was bad. We were also missing some key players out there. I'm not saying we would have won, but its different when you have an experienced point guard on the floor."
Kelsey Bone, redshirt sophomore for the Aggies, scored four of the Aggies first eight points; and, A&M held the Cardinals scoreless the first 3:47 of the game. Despite the slow start, Louisville trailed by six points, 20-14, with 8:32 left in the first half. However, Karla Gilbert scored five points during a 7-0 run to give the Aggies a 27-14 lead with 5:06 left til halftime.
The Aggies (2-0) led the Cardinals 33-25 at halftime. Louisville (1-1) made 7 of 24 field goal attempts (29.2%); and, the Aggies shooting percentage wasn't much better (35.9%, 14 for 39). The Aggies forced the Cardinals into 13 first half turnovers.
Bone began the second half with a score from an offensive rebound which began a 10-4 mini-run by the Aggies (43-29). The Aggies continued pounding the offensive glass; and, the Cardinals continued committing turnovers (14) in the second twenty minutes; and, a result, the Aggies pulled away and led by as much as 25 points (76-51) in the half.
The Aggies finished the game with 28 offensive rebounds compared to 19 for the Cardinals. The Ags won the overall board battle 47-41.
Bria Smith, freshman forward was the big bright spot for the Cardinals in the game. Smith scored a game-high 20 points on 8 of 11 shooting from the field. She added seven rebounds, four steals, and two assists (plus six turnovers).
Kelsey Bone scored a team-high 15 points (5 for 10) for the Aggies in only 15 minutes of action. Bone also grabbed nine rebounds which were eight more than she had in Saturday's home-opener versus Lamar.
"Coach Blair challenged me, and I knew if I did nothing else I had to rebound tonight," Bone said.
Sydney Carter scored 14 points, pulled down five rebounds, and swiped a career-high eight steals.
Carter's eight steals are the most steals by an Aggie since Toccara Williams had nine steals on Jan. 25, 2004, against Texas.
Senior Tyra White chipped in 13 points (6 for 12) shooting for the Aggies.
After the game, Coach Blair summed up his team's performance.
"We competed. We made turnovers and it was a long game, but I really like the way our press has affected the teams in our first two games."
