DALLAS — For the second time in school history, Texas A&M’s women’s basketball team is headed to the Elite Eight. The second-seeded Aggies advanced past the Sweet 16 with a 79-38 blowout of Georgia Sunday at the American Airlines Center in Dallas.
“It just wasn’t pretty and if you’re Georgia, it wasn’t any fun,” said Georgia Head Coach Andy Landers. “But you have to give Texas A&M just a lot of credit. They did what they do. They came out, they get in your face defensively and they did that very well tonight, disrupted very well and created early turnovers.”
A&M assistant Head Coach Vic Schaeffer had the Aggies’ defense ready to play Sunday with one of the best performances of the season. A&M’s intense defensive pressure forced the Bulldogs to shoot 25 percent from the field.
“The intensity that we play the game with, just come to a practice,” said A&M Head Coach Gary Blair. “We never let up. We never let up … I kept looking up at halftime and I was telling [people]: ‘I can’t believe it.’ I was telling the officials: ‘I don’t know what happened.’ I’ve never had an NCAA game like this against this quality of a team.”
Georgia fell out of contention early after scoring only two points through the first 10 minutes of play. The Bulldogs went down 35-5 before regaining their composure and cutting the deficit to 48-17 going into the locker room at halftime.
“I think it was the most complete game we’ve played on the defensive end,” said A&M junior guard Tyra White. “The key coming into the game was defense because they play just like us. Our defense was tremendous today, so I think if we go in with this mind set, the sky’s the limit for us.”
With Sunday’s victory, Texas A&M (30-5) clinched the first 30-win season in Aggie basketball history. A&M returns to the Elite Eight after losing to eventual national champion Tennessee in their first appearance in 2008.
“It’s great, I’ve never been to an Elite Eight,” said A&M senior center Danielle Adams. “This is my first one, and I’m pretty sure these girls are happy to get back to the Elite Eight. So it’s all a dream come true to us. We just have to keep our focus and keep pushing towards the next game.”
Adams scored a game-high 23 points for the Aggies and pulled down 14 rebounds for her second double-double of the NCAA tournament. Adams got off to a slow start but things opened up when A&M started hitting outside shots.
“Adams, who is the key to their team, and of course we tried to stop her inside but it’s hard to stop her from the inside,” said Georgia senior forward Porsha Phillips. “And they’ve got great 3-point shooters so I was trying to do both.”
Dishing the ball out to Adams and company, A&M junior guard Sydney Carter tallied a game-high six assists to go along with two 3-pointers. Senior guard Sydney Colson scored 11 points and knocked down 3-of-4 from beyond the arch.
“The last thing I expected was Colson,” Landers said. “The very last thing I expected was Colson going 3-for-4. That really put us on our heels early in the game.”
A&M’s 41-point win over Georgia (23-11) was their largest margin of victory in an NCAA tournament game. The loss was also the Bulldogs’ worst of the season.
The Aggies will be back in action at the American Airlines Center Tuesday for their Elite 8 matchup with No. 1 Baylor (31-2). Baylor won the previous three meetings this season.
“That’s been in the back of our minds,” Carter said of a rematch with Baylor. “We’ve played them so close and we’ve never been able to finish.”