Bears put dent in Aggies´ plans for a strong run

COLLEGE STATION - With four games left in the Big 12 regular season, No. 21 Texas A&M appears to be headed toward its best finish in the league.

But Sophia Young and No. 12 Baylor momentarily derailed the Aggies on Wednesday night, stopping a three-win streak with an 84-59 victory in front of 11,088, a record for an A&M women´s crowd.

Coach Gary Blair afterward offered no alibi at Reed Arena, only a pithy description for what happened.

"Baylor just flat outplayed us, OK?" he said. "(In) every aspect of the game. It was just a butt-kicking. That´s all it is. And I can take it, and we´ll be better because of it."

Baylor, trying to atone for an 81-77 overtime loss to Big 12 leader Oklahoma on the road on Saturday, hit the Aggies with a beautiful combination that was impossible to combat.

Young and Abiola Wabara turned up the heat on the Lady Bears´ inside game. Guards Angela Tisdale and Chameka Scott conducted a clinic on the proper art of 3-point shooting. And tThe Aggies found themselves trailing by 42-23 at halftime and by 29 points in the second period.

With the Aggies down by only 16 points (64-48), Blair challenged an official´s call in the second half, picked up two technical fouls and was ejected from the game in what he said was a first for his career.

"I thought it was a charge, the referee (Clarke Stevens) thought it was a block. How many times am I going to win that? I deserved the first ´T.´ I didn´t deserve the second ´T,´ but they thought I did. But I didn´t say a word to get that second ´T.´ "

What Blair saw from deep in one of the tunnel areas leading away from the floor was more of the same overwhelming basketball the Bears displayed in disrupting the usual fast-break attack of the Aggies for most of the night.

Change on defense

A&M tried in vain to use its full-court press to whittle the huge Baylor lead.

"We haven´t had to press," said Blair. "We haven´t been behind like this all year. That´s the first thing.

"So this was a first. We hadn´t been like that. We didn´t respond very well. I didn´t like the looks in the eyes of my kids. We´ll grow from that."

Baylor dominated on the inside, scoring 30 points in the paint to eight for A&M. Young finished with 16 points and six rebounds. Wabara had 11 points and seven boards.

The Bears shot 55 percent from the floor and recorded a season-best 64 percent from behind the 3-point arc (7-for-11).

"When you´re hitting from the three, you win a lot of games," said Baylor coach Kim Mulkey-Robertson, "especially when Sophia and Abbie are getting so much attention inside."

´A lot of energy´

"Baylor´s a great ballclub, they came out with a lot of energy," said A&M guard A´Quonesia Franklin. "They should have been matching our intensity, but we had to match their intensity. And they came out pretty tough.

"They did a pretty good job of getting the ball inside. Our ball pressure wasn´t as good as it usually is."

A&M earlier this year defeated several upper-echelon Big 12 teams for the first time, including Kansas State, Kansas, Texas Tech and Colorado. They are now tied with Baylor and Missouri for second place in the Big 12.

A&M has never finished higher than ninth.

"Every game, there´s something to learn," said Aggies sophomore Morenike Atunrase, who had 17 points.

"We always go in after a game looking at our mistakes so we can work on them. And yes, this does show us where our weaknesses are."