WBB: A&M falls at home to Texas, 76-71

Post-game thoughts

* What a frustrating, disappointing and unacceptable loss. Other than Sydney Carter, A&M did not play with nearly enough urgency — especially on the defensive end — and because of that, we're sitting here talking about a 76-71 loss to the team from Austin. Texas came out with supreme confidence and a will to win and was able to snap an 11-game losing skid against the Aggies. The victory gives Texas head coach Gail Goestenkors her first win in the series.

* Texas played very fast and pushed the basketball really well throughout the game … even after made baskets. The Horns looked so fresh and very fast on the floor. Meanwhile, the Aggies looked tired and very slow.

Vic Schaefer said after the game on the radio that A&M has been grinding in practice every day for the last two weeks and the players are tired. You could definitely tell. The Ags showed no effort in getting back on defense, allowing the Horns to run up 20 fast break points in the game. A&M is much better than that and the effort on defense that they showed tonight will get you beat more often than not in this league.

* Texas is unranked because it has lost close games to very good teams, but from a talent standpoint you can't tell me that the Longhorns are not one of the top 20 teams in the country. This team is loaded. It's physical and long inside and is really good at the guard positions. Plus, Texas has a true star player in sophomore wing Chassidy Fussell. And in this one, Fussell was one of the two best players on the floor.

* The other was Sydney Carter, who opened the game like a woman on a mission. She scored nine points in the first 7:13 of the game, accounting for nine of the Aggies' first 14 points. Carter continued her tremendous play throughout the game, finishing with 25 points in 36 minutes of action before fouling out with 3:57 remaining in the contest.

* Carter did everything in her power to keep it close … even when nobody else was playing particularly well. The turning point in the game was Carter fouling out just inside four minutes to play. A&M trailed by just one possession at the time and Carter was on fire. Her exit from the game took the wind out of A&M's sails because they really didn't have anyone on the floor that was performing like a go to player. You could feel that A&M would have a tough time winning the game without Syd on the floor, and that's exactly the way it played out.

* Alexia Standish got her second start in as many games and I thought she did a very good job at this stage in her development. It's not easy for a freshman to jump into action and have her first two starts come against the likes of Texas and Oklahoma … two of A&M's chief rivals on the hardwood.

But she handled it well. Lexi dished out five assists with no turnovers in 18 minutes, but she needs to be more aggressive in pushing the ball and in taking the open jumper when it's right there for her. She finds herself deferring to the older players too much but Standish has a great jump shot. The next step in her development is to use it and be confident in it.

* I do think at this point that A&M is better with Standish on the court over Adrienne Pratcher. Even though Pratcher had eight assists in the game, she just didn't seem to be "into" it. She wasn't playing smart basketball and didn't do a lot to lead A&M at the point guard position. Standish seems to take better control of the team and now she's starting to play longer stretches without making terrible mistakes.

Yes, there are still deficiencies in her game at this stage in her career, but I would like to see her at the 25-minute mark moving forward and allow her to learn on the job. Because in March, with the added experience, I firmly believe that Standish will give A&M the best chance to make a strong run in the tournament. Obviously you need both PGs but I just want the minutes to start being distributed differently.

* Adaora Elonu produced her second straight double-double … scoring 10 points and grabbing 10 rebounds. She also had five blocks and played 37 minutes. That being said, Ashley Gayle went nuts for Texas, scoring 17 points and doing a lot of her damage on Elonu. Gayle came into the game averaging a little more than five points per contest. Her offensive production was a huge difference in the victory for Texas.

* Gary Blair is right when he talks about Tyra White being a slow starter. In this one #20 had just two points over the first 7:36. She finished with 19 points and seven rebounds while playing all 40 minutes. As good as Tyra is, I would love to see her start the game stronger. Who knows what her numbers would be like if she came out hot out of the chute from time to time.

* As I wrote about on Sunday after her tremendous performance against Oklahoma, Kelsey Bone's next step in her development is playing with a high level of consistency. She has long stretches in games where she does nothing to impact the contest. Then, at times, she's the best player on the floor.

Take tonight's game … K-Bone had zero points and zero rebounds through the first 13-plus minutes of action. She was lethargic on both ends of the floor and played as if she was overmatched by Texas' physical bigs. We know that this is nowhere near the case, but if you play like this and think like this, it will become a reality.

Bone re-entered the game at the 6:38 mark of the first half, sitting on goose eggs in both points and rebounds. She started playing with more force and fire from that point forward, but it simply was not her night. Kelsey missed so many wide open, point blank layups and had a lot of trouble just catching the ball in the low block. Kelsey finished with seven points and five rebounds in the loss.

* A&M started the game extremely well on the defensive end, extending out and guarding the line and the bigs were playing physical against the Texas bigs. But somewhere around the midway point of the half, things started to slip. In a big way. Texas went on a couple of big runs to take control of the basketball game and while the Aggies were able to weather the storm and settle down a little bit after that first half barrage, the tempo was controlled by the Longhorns. And that's why we're sitting here talking about a loss.

* Props to the crowd … they were into it from the start and did their part to impact the game. A very robust crowd of 7,587 came out to show their support in the final game against Texas as conference foes. Too bad they had to go home unhappy after seeing the Aggies fall to the 'Horns for the first time in a dozen games.

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Post-game quotes

Head Coach Gary Blair
Opening statement…
"The farthest thing from my mind before the game was the streak. The streak is good for newspapers, but we have to learn how to continue to play well under pressure, particularly when we’re at home. When you get seniors to put it together like (Ashley) Gayle, (Ashleigh) Fontenette and (Yvonne) Anderson did today, they don’t want to go out losing to A&M all four years. Those kids had a lot of pride. We’ll learn from this and we’ll try to get better. We’re getting everyone’s bests, and there’s no use feeling sorry for us. We knew it coming in and it’s going to happen all year long. Are we going to make excuses or find the solutions? Texas flat outplayed us today."
 
On not being able to capitalize when Texas’ post players were in foul trouble…
"I thought the last 8 minutes of the first half were the key to the ball game. We had our bigs in there and they had their bigs on the bench with foul problems and we were not able to take charge of the ball game. I thought we were extremely lucky to only be down by four at the half. We missed some bunnies down there and we have to work on them."
 
On Texas’ guard play…
"They’ve got four guards to play three positions, give them credit. They’re in better shape, and four players can rotate in to play three positions, and I thought they did a great job doing it. (Yvonne) Anderson was the key in the ball game, even though she turned it over seven times, she did things right. That’s a coaches’ daughter."
 
On defensive performance tonight…
"You’d better ask Coach Schaefer on that one, it’s always something, but sometimes you have to give credit to offensive execution."
 
On not being able to take the lead tonight…
"I think that’s a lot of it, not having seniors step up. We might not have had the coach step up and call the right plays on offense too. It’s being able to make a play under pressure. Isn’t that what leaders are supposed to do under pressure? And that’s what we’re supposed to be. We’re a proud national champion, but that’s last year. We have to practice better."
 
On getting out hustled against Texas…
"This is our home, don’t ever get outplayed at home, and don’t be the last one on the floor for a loose ball. Don’t let them take the ball away from you in a tie ball situation. Our kids were trying the best they could, but they’re 18-22-year-olds. But did we play that bad or did Texas play that good? When we lost to Baylor three times last year, we had pride going into that last game and we found a way. We’re going to grow and become better because of this game."
 
On how to prepare for Iowa State…
"Get smarter as a basketball team. This will be a game similar to K-State. I’ve got to get our kids to sit there and realize that every shot that’s taken outside can be a pass to you and work hard to get that rebound and put back."


G Sydney Carter
On building on her offensive performance…
"Yeah definitely, it’s just nice to provide for my team in crucial moments. They needed me out there, but it’s a losing effort. It’s not good enough.  I have to find a way to get my teammates involved as well and make sure I’m staying as aggressive as I did on the offensive side tonight."
 
On the difference in Texas tonight…
"I think they were hungry tonight and I think they’ve used those last 11 that they’ve lost as motivation and they came in here with nothing to lose and they played to win, no not to lose.’ Give them credit, they played very well tonight. This is a learning process tonight. We’ll get in the practice court tomorrow, work on the holes we have in some areas and we’ll try to get better every day. That’s all we can do."
 
On fouling out…
"I think it was a lot of the emotion. I was trying to get a stop for my team, but I just have to be smarter. That comes back to me as a player and knowing that the team needs me with four minutes left in the game. I just have to be better."
 
On what the team needs to do to prepare for Iowa State…
"I think it’s important for us to not get down. We’ve never been in this position, but it’s all about how we respond. I just have to let my team know that it’s tough to play at Iowa State, but it’s not impossible to win there. We have to respond positively to this and keep growing and keep learning and making sure we don’t let games slip out of our hands like we did today."
 

F Adaora Elonu
On Texas’ play tonight…
"They were very physical and able to finish their shots. They ran high-low pretty well. Gayle, we weren’t expecting all of that, but she finished very well and played like a senior."
 
On Gayle’s performance…
"Normally in the past, she wasn’t as aggressive as she was, or the shots weren’t falling. It took us aback, but we need to be prepared for it either way. She played a good game, her shots were going in and that’s something we need to work on to limit."
 
On team’s mindset when Sydney Carter fouled out…
"That someone has to step up, not only the person who comes in for her, but us as a team to come together and fight through the last four minutes. It was up to us five to step up and play hard."
 

Texas HC Gail Goestenkors
Opening statement…
"Some people say wow, you go the monkey off of your back, no it was a gorilla, it had grown over the years. A&M is a great team and Sydney Carter put on a show. But we stood together; we made the plays we needed to make on the offensive and defensive ends. Some teams, when they lose a couple of games, they get down, but this team has time and time again shown resiliency."
 
On Carter fouling out of the game…
"When Carter fouled out, it was huge. We were having trouble defending Sydney. I thought Chelsea (Bass) probably had done the best job against her, she had done a nice job, but overall we kept switching defenders to find someone who could stop her because she was in the zone. When she picked up that fifth foul, she was their go-to player."
 

Texas F Ashley Gayle
On what motivated her tonight…
"I just didn’t want to lose. I know as a team we put in a lot of work the past couple days and the past few months, and it’s one of the big goals to not only win Big 12, but beat A&M, with that in mind, everyone was in attack mode."
 
On what influenced her play tonight…
"I mean, there were a lot of different aspects that go into this thing. The fact that they’re defending champions and this being the last matchup at A&M- with that in mind, it made everyone more focused."

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Post-game notes

* For the second time this season, Texas A&M used the starting lineup of Alexia Standish, Sydney Carter, Tyra White, Adaora Elonu and Kelsey Bone … It marked the second career start for Standish, the 12th of Bone’s Aggie career, the 85th for White and 88th for Elonu.

* Texas A&M moves to 23-59 in the all-time series with Texas but has still won 11 of the last 12 meetings between the two schools.

* Texas A&M moves to 4-3 on TV this season.

* The Aggies had a season-best 11 blocked shots against UT, which was the most since Jan. 22, 2011 at Iowa State.

* A&M dished out 18 assists, its second-most this season.

* The loss was the first at home against a non-ranked opponent since A&M fell 59-73 to Nebraska on Feb. 16, 2005.

* The crowd of 7,587 was sixth all-time in single game attendance for the A&M women.

* White has now started in 72 straight games, a streak that started on Jan. 4, 2010 against Lamar.

* White has scored double figures in 21 of her last 22 games.

* Elonu tallied her sixth career double-double with 10 points and 10 rebounds.

* Elonu tallied a career-high five blocked shots.

* As part of her career-high 25 points, Carter was a season-best 3-of-6 from beyond the arc.

* Standish had career bests with five assists, three rebounds and two steals.

* Karla Gilbert added a season-high three blocked shots.