Texas A&M's Danielle Adams showed the Missouri Tigers what they're missing, and the Aggies' defense showed up late to seal a critical 65-55 Big 12 basketball victory Wednesday night at Reed Arena.
Adams, who signed with the Missouri women out of high school, and fellow Kansas City native Tanisha Smith each scored 19 points to help the 12th-ranked Aggies (16-4, 4-3) end a two-game losing streak. They provided A&M with a nice inside-outside scoring balance, but the outcome was in doubt until the Aggies stopped the Tigers on the other end of the court.
Hard-luck Missouri (11-10, 1-7) has lost three games by a bucket and stayed close to the Aggies until late in the game. The Tigers cut A&M's lead to 51-50 on Shakara Jones' layup with 3 minutes, 50 seconds left.
The crowd of 3,510 fans, including many who had watched A&M blow a 14-point lead Sunday against Oklahoma State, looked a bit uneasy. But in the next two and half minutes, the Aggies gave them reasons to stand and get loud.
A&M, which typically plays a man defense, switched to an aggressive zone to force a pair of turnovers and three missed shots.
"It was a perfect 3 to 4 minutes down the stretch," A&M head coach Gary Blair said of the Aggies' defense. "They were running their stuff pretty good. We had to switch to something."
The Aggies defended the passing lanes and denied Missouri any open looks. Missouri forced up a 3-pointer and didn't handle the pressure well.
A&M also did a good job of limiting Missouri to one-shot possessions throughout the game, holding a 36-27 rebounding edge. Adams led the way with seven.
"I think she's playing extremely well," said Missouri head coach Cindy Stein, who initially signed Adams. "She plays smart. She's playing defense. I don't think I've ever seen her play defense before."
Adams played a key part as A&M scored on five straight possessions to put the game away. A&M's offense went through Adams, who worked at the foul line with her back to the basket. She would turn and drive, or pass to teammates coming off screens or cutting to the basket.
"When we were running our stuff with Danielle in the game, we were as good offensively as we have been all year," Blair said.
Adams started the critical stretch by missing a layup, but Dimitria Buchanan rebounded and scored. A&M got a fast-break basket by Tyra White, another Kansas City native, off a Buchanan steal, then White hit a 14-footer. Adams made a pair of free throws and Smith capped it with a layup off a pass from Adams to make it 61-51 with 51 seconds left.
"I was pleased with the game and our end-of-game situations were a whole lot better than some of the games we lost and even won this season," Blair said.
Missouri never really slowed down the 6-foot-1 Adams, who was 7-of-12 shooting. She played only 21 minutes because of foul trouble.
"There was a lot of emotion there for me, knowing Coach Stein for so long and now playing against her was emotional," Adams said.
Smith, who added seven steals and six rebounds, said the fear of losing to many of the players she grew up competing against spurred her to play well down the stretch.
"I think there was a lot of emotion for all the Kansas City kids," she said. "We all three were recruited to Missouri. Not to [belittle] our home state, but I think we made a good choice by coming here. It's our style of play. We get after it."
The 6-foot senior tried to put an exclamation point on the game with a dunk attempt with 30 seconds left, but just missed it. Alert point guard Sydney Carter was trailing for the rebound and was fouled, converting both free throws.
Carter had to play 34 minutes because starting guard Sydney Colson was out with a leg injury. Carter had four assists and four rebounds with only one turnover.
Sophomore post Kelsey Assarian came off the bench for five points while A&M was struggling to a 28-27 halftime lead.
Senior Jessra Johnson led Missouri with 15 points and eight rebounds. San Antonio native Christine Flores, a sophomore who attended Blair's camps, had 11 points.
"We were having a hard time against their post players," Smith said. "Just not letting them catch the ball was good for us."
The Tigers did a great job of finding cutters for layups to register 16 assists with RaeShara Brown and Shakara Jones combining for 11. But the Tigers were 1 of 10 on 3-pointers.
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NOTES -- Colson has a hot spot above her left ankle on the fibula. She is wearing a boot for the stress reaction. She could play at Nebraska on Saturday. ... Smith said she's been dunking for two years and has done it in practice.