After completing a successful two-game homestand with the likes of Duke and Rice, the eighth-ranked Texas A&M women’s basketball team (2-0) takes the show on the road with a Sunday, Nov. 22 matchup against defending Southeastern Conference champion Auburn (2-1) at Beard-Eaves-Memorial Coliseum in Auburn, Ala.
The Aggies and Tigers will meet for only the second time in both program’s history at 2 p.m. (CT). A&M will make its first-ever trip to the state of Alabama and first trip to SEC country since playing at Vanderbilt during the 1995-96 season. The Aggies have averaged 90.5 points per game in their last two outings including an 86-50 rout of Rice on Nov. 18. A&M will be matched in the defense department as Auburn has caused opponents to turn over the ball an average of 23.3 times over three games, while Aggie opponents have accrued 22.0 per game. Both schools lost talented senior classes to graduation a year ago including the Texas A&M trio of all-time leading scorer Takia Starks, Danielle Gant and La Toya Micheaux and the Auburn duo of DeWanna Bonner and Whitney Boddie.

TIGER BEAT

Auburn is off to a 2-1 start to the season with home victories over Troy (70-65) and Alabama A&M (83-56). Like A&M, the Tigers must play a tough non-conference slate to prepare them well for SEC competition in January. The Big 12 and SEC are arguably two of the strongest women’s basketball leagues in the nation from top-to-bottom. Auburn’s one loss of the season was a 66-52 road decision at 2009 NCAA Tournament participant Temple on Nov. 17 in Philadelphia. Junior guard and native Alabaman Alli Smalley, who is the lone non-senior starter on last year’s SEC Championship winning team, is averaging a team-leading 21.3 points per contest. The Tigers will unveil their 2009 SEC Champions/NCAA Banner prior to Sunday’s game.

PROBABLE STARTING LINEUPS

TEXAS A&M

No. Name 2009-10 Stats

51 Sydney Colson, G, 5-8, Jr. 11.5 ppg, 7.5 apg

20 Tyra White, G, 6-0, RS-So. 5.0 ppg, 3.0 rpg

22 Tanisha Smith, G/F, 6-0, Sr. 16.5 ppg, 3.0 rpg

21 Adaora Elonu, F, 6-1, So. 9.0 ppg, 2.0 rpg

2 Damitria Buchanan, F, 6-2, Sr. 2.5 ppg, 6.0 rpg

AUBURN

No. Name 2009-10 Stats

1 Morgan Toles, G, 5-9, Fr. 4.7 ppg, 5.7 apg

5 Alli Smalley, G, 5-8, Jr. 21.3 ppg, 3.0 rpg

4 Parrisha Simmons, G, 6-0, So. 5.0 ppg, 5.3 rpg

21 Jordan Greenleaf, F, 6-1, Jr. 4.3 ppg, 7.0 rpg

23 Chantel Hilliard, F, 6-2, So. 7.7 ppg, 3.0 rpg

STATISTICAL COMPARISON

2009-10 Category TAMU AUBURN

Overall Record 2-0 2-1

Conference Record 0-0 0-0

Points Per Game 90.5 68.3

Scoring Margin +27.0 +6.0

Rebounds Per Game 39.5 41.3

Rebounding Margin +0.5 -0.7

Field Goal Percentage 51.2 42.3

Field Goal% Defense 34.4 39.3

Three-Point FG% 57.1 35.0

Free Throw Percentage 69.6 51.4

Turnovers Per Game 14.0 18.0

Assists Per Game 24.0 15.0

Blocks Per Game 7.5 7.7

Steals Per Game 7.0 10.3

SERIES NOTES

Texas A&M leads 1-0 in the all-time series with Auburn. Both teams last met two years ago in College Station with the Aggies defeating the Tigers, 62-60, on Dec. 15, 2007 at Reed Arena. It marked A&M’s first home win over a non-conference top 25 ranked opponent since an 83-73 victory over No. 16 Duke on Nov. 17, 1995 at G. Rollie White Coliseum.

SERIES FLASHBACK

Takia Starks scored 17 points and Danielle Gant added 16 as No. 11 Texas A&M handed No. 14 Auburn its first loss of the season, 62-60, at Reed Arena. Auburn was one of nine unbeaten schools leading into the game. After trailing by as many as nine points in the second half, the Tigers pulled within a point with 3:17 remaining, 57-56, but A’Quonesia Franklin scored A&M’s next five points on a three-pointer at the shot clock buzzer and two free throws to hold the Tigers at bay. Franklin ended the night with eight points. Earlier in the contest, Franklin dished out the 500th assist of her career and finished the game with a team-high five assists. Starks also hit a career milestone with the 1,000th point of her three-year A&M career at the 14:44 minute mark of the first half. She became the 19th women’s basketball player in school history to reach 1,000 career points. A&M took an 11-point lead into halftime on the strength of a 20-4 run late in the first period. The run started after the Aggies fell behind by six points with 12:54 to go in the first half of play, 17-11. For the fifth-straight game, A&M shot better than 40 percent from the floor (41.7) and scored 34 of its total points in the paint including a seven-point and eight-rebound effort by Patrice Reado. Four Auburn players scored in double figures including a team-high 13 points and nine rebounds from Jordan Greenleaf.

BABY BARKLEY?

Texas A&M head coach has compared preseason Big 12 Newcomer of the Year and former National JUCO Player of the Year Danielle Adams (Kansas City, Mo.) to former Auburn basketball and NBA star Charles Barkley. The “Round Mound of Rebound” was known for his tenaciousness on the boards and being a fan and media favorite. In only two games of her budding Aggie career, Adams has already dazzled fans on the court with her inside and outside game. She is currently averaging a team-leading 19.5 points per game and knocked down a trio of three-pointers from downtown. Adams has compiled a total of 39 points in 40 minutes of play combined (averaging nearly one point per minute) against then-No. 6 Duke on Nov. 15 in the team’s season opener and Rice on Nov. 18.

FROM THE SIDELINES

• Texas A&M head coach Gary Blair is 7-6 all-time versus Auburn in his 25 years as a Division I head coach. He previously held SEC ties as the head coach at Arkansas from 1993-2003. Blair compiled a 198-120 record (.623) with the Lady Razorbacks who reached the NCAA Final Four in 1998 under his watch. Associate head coaches Vic Schaefer and Kelly Bond were also a part of Blair’s coaching staff at Arkansas, while third-year assistant coach Johnnie Harris spent three seasons at Arkansas under former head coach Susie Gardner.

• The Aggies are 2-1 all-time against schools hailing from the Heart of Dixie including Alabama-Birmingham (1-0), Auburn (1-0) and South Alabama (0-1). A&M will look for only its second-ever road win at an SEC school with a 1-15 all-time mark. The Aggies’ only SEC road victory is a 67-61 win at LSU on Dec. 29, 1993 in Baton Rouge, La.

• Sophomore Sydney Carter will have a mini family reunion this weekend as 10-15 members of her mother’s side of the family will be in attendance at the Auburn game donning the Maroon and White. Her mother, Suzy Atchison, is originally from the Birmingham area and Carter, who just turned 19 years old on Wednesday, will meet them all for the very first time on Sunday.

RICE RECAP

Texas A&M 86, Rice 50

• For the second-straight game, Texas A&M used the starting lineup of Sydney Colson, Tyra White, Tanisha Smith, Adaora Elonu and Damitria Buchanan (2-0).

• With the win, the Aggies extend their lead to 28-10 in the all-time series with Rice. A&M won by 36 points which was the largest margin of victory in the last five games in the series. Each game prior had been decided by 13 points or less. Coming into the game, the Aggies had lost three out of the last four contests between the two schools.

• A&M also extended its home-court win streak to eight-straight games at Reed Arena.

• Tanisha Smith and Danielle Adams turned in back-to-back games in double figures. Adams led the team in scoring for the second consecutive contest with 15 points. Smith turned in 14 points to mark her 10th consecutive game in double figures since scoring 18 points versus Oklahoma State in the team’s regular-season home finale on March 5, 2009. She had an eight-game streak going prior to the Aggies’ loss in the NCAA Sweet 16 a year ago.

• Junior reserve Maryann Baker (Dallas, Texas) tied career-bests in points (5), rebounds (3) and three-pointers made (1) and set a new personal best with three assists versus the Owls.

• A&M has dished out 20-or-more assists in back-to-back games against Rice (23) and No. 6 Duke (25).

• Sophomore Skylar Collins (Cedar Hill, Texas) recorded a career-high five points and freshman Kristi Bellock (St. Rose, La.) scored her first career bucket at the 9:41 minute mark of the second half and ended the night with six points. Freshmen Cierra Windham (Corona, Calif.) and Adrienne Pratcher (Memphis, Tenn.) also scored their first collegiate points with two apiece.

AGGIE NOTABLE QUOTABLES

“Both us were hit heavy with graduation losses. The road is not defined in the dictionary very well. It just says there is a little path going along. But, the road means so much more in the sporting world. How do you prepare for the road? You have to have confidence in your team, you have to have great preparation and you have to go in with a ‘no fear’ attitude. I think we will play well, because of the magnitude of the game. We play better against better competition. I think that’s what you saw when we played against Duke on Sunday.” – Texas A&M head coach Gary Blair on going on the road through SEC country at Auburn

“I’m excited to start traveling on the road. Auburn is a different team than when we played them two years ago. They lost a lot of veterans and have a lot of young players. They have a lot of athleticism and are tall in the post. They have two players, who are 6-foot-7 and 6-foot-8, coming off the bench. We have to really buckle down on defense and play our game. It’s going to be a tough road test for us, since we played both of our first two games at home. Our game against Rice wasn’t that great and we didn’t do as well on defense like we did versus Duke. We just need to keep up our intensity, take care of the ball and pressure them the best that we can this weekend.” – Senior Co-Captain Sydney Colson on this weekend’s road trip to Auburn

“It’s going to be a difficult game for us. We are both defensive-minded teams. They are very athletic and pretty big inside. We are going to have to match athleticism versus athleticism. The road is always difficult and this will show how we are going to respond on the road for the rest of the season. It’s an important game to see where are as a team after coming off such good wins at home (against Duke and Rice).” – Sophomore Guard Sydney Carter on team’s first road test at Auburn

AGGIES ON THE RADIO

All Texas A&M women’s basketball games can be heard via a radio broadcast on the Texas A&M Sports Network. Play-by-play announcer Mike Wright will call the action live from Beard-Eaves-Memorial Coliseum alongside color analyst and former player A’Quonesia Franklin on KZNE 1150 AM. A live audio feed will also be available on www.AggieAthletics.com.