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COLLEGE STATION-Junior All-American candidate Kelsey Bone continued
her torrid play collecting her 12th double-double to lead No. 11 Texas A&M
to a 78-71 victory of Florida at Reed Arena.
Bone dominated in the paint throughout the night and the
Gators had no answer, along the way Bone collected her 12th double-double on
the season with 31 points and 10 rebounds.
"We were just watching the Bone show tonight, Bone played
great," Head Coach Gary Blair said after the game about Bone's performance. "Her
free-throw shooting was great, we got the ball inside and Bone took advantage
of her touches."
A&M (20-5, 10-1 SEC) won its eighth straight game
overall and twelfth straight at home to move into a first place tie with idle
Tennessee (19-5, 10-1). The 10-1 start sets the record for best conference
start by the Aggies in program history, the win also marked the 20th of the
season for the eighth straight season.
A&M opened the game making the first 4-of-5 shots to take
an early seven point lead forcing a Gator timeout. Bone was everywhere in the
opening minutes tallying two points, two rebounds and a steal in less than four
minutes of play.
Following the first media timeout the Aggies went on a 10-0
run to force another Florida timeout. Bone continued her impressive night
scoring four points in the run, including a nifty step-through reverse layup.
The Gators used a 20-6 run over eight minutes of action to
cut the A&M lead to just two with 2:27 to play in first half. Senior
Adrienne Pratcher made a half-court shot as time expired to put the Aggies
ahead 34-27 at the break.
"We were playing great defense the first ten minutes of the
ball game, but then it was give or take after that," Blair added after the
game. "We've got to be able to sub and
get our continuity going better with our subs then what we had tonight."
A&M came out of the break with a 13-2 giving the Aggies
and then game-high 16 point lead. During the run Bone scored seven tough points
in the paint to continue her stellar night.
The Gators did not quit, outscoring the Aggies 31-16 in 10
minutes of action to cut the A&M lead to as little as four points. Bone
sank seven free-throws in the final two minutes to seal the Aggie victory, on
the way to a new career high nine free-throws in the game.
A&M dominated the boards throughout the game
outrebounding the visiting Gators 39-27 with 12 offensive rebounds leading to 19
second chance points. The Aggies did not allow a Florida second chance point
until the 7:49 left to play.
"I've got a lot of love for my basketball team," Blair added
about playing on Valentine's Day. "Someday I expect them to go out there, and
we shoot 46%, and we 22 out of 26 from the line, and we outrebound them by 12."
Joining Bone in double-figures were seniors Kristi Bellock
with 13 and Pratcher with 12. Pratcher and freshman Courtney Walker lead the
Aggies with five assists apiece.
Florida was paced by Jaterra Bonds' 17 points, Lily Svete
added 15 on five made three pointers and January Miller added 11 to round out
the double digit scorers for the Gators.
The Aggies return to the court for another Big Monday
showing against No. 7 Kentucky at 6:00 p.m. Elementary school students can
register online for free tickets to all remaining home games, parents can go to
http://www.12thmanfoundation.com/ticket-center/promo/elementary.aspx
to register their children for free tickets to the game. Monday's game will be
the seventh annual Beat the Hell Outta Breast Cancer game with proceeds benefiting
the Kay Yow Foundation, visit www.aggieathletics.com/bthobc
for more information.
Texas A&M Women's Basketball Postgame
Quotes:
Texas A&M Head Coach Gary
Blair
Opening statement
"Before the
ball game, on Valentine's, I took my wife to dinner at 5:30 at Traditions, I
gave the coach at Florida a rose before the ball game, and we almost gave her
the game at the end due to very good execution on their part, and very good
point guard play by Bonds on their part.
And the youth of our basketball team on the defensive end showed, and we
haven't been in a whole lot of those situation.
The lack of communication hurt us, but sometimes you have to give credit
to the other team because I think only one of those shots was wide open. The rest of them we were trying to get there
either on the screens, but they executed and didn't give up, so I would just
like to give Florida a lot of credit for what they did. Butler said before the game she thought the
two best point guards in the league were her kid and my kid; I'm not going to
doubt that a whole lot. I'm going to
have to throw in O'Neal there at Kentucky, but I thought the point guard play
on both teams was very good. The
leadership by both kids was very good; I played Pratcher a little longer than I
really wanted to, but this wasn't a ball game that my bench really helped me
out a whole lot. When we had the big
league in the first half, I was trying to rest people for a little bit, but
then they countered and cut it to a two point game. By the time you get your first group back in,
the other team has momentum. Exactly the
same thing happened in the second half; we have a 20 point lead, I try to rest
some kids. It's not that they played so
bad, it's the other team played so good and you lose the flow of defense, you
lose the flow of continuity, then you have some untimely turnovers in
there. I thought we stood around on
offense against the zone. We were just
watching the Bone show, instead of moving around to the ball or cutting to the
basket to be able to help her off. Bone
played great, but we've got to have some help from some of our freshmen out
there knocking down some shots and reading and attacking the zone which we
didn't have. The free-throw shooting was
great, we got the ball inside. Tori off
the bench, that's why I started her in the second half, she gave us some
excitement out there and gave us some easy baskets that Williams hadn't been
giving us. Hopefully this will give a
wakeup to Williams because there's competition at that spot; it's not a given
who's going to start and who's going to play.
Hopefully Courtney will take it to heart and get back and have a better
practice the next couple of days to be able to play on Monday against
Kentucky."
On preparing for Kentucky
"Kentucky
almost lost it today, but that's what a home game can do. You come back, and the crowd can get you into
it, and Kentucky did a good job of coming back like they did on us when we had
the lead at their place. Now I'm going
to focus on Kentucky, but I'm going to correct some mistakes tomorrow, and I'm
going to correct some attitude adjustment, where we had the leadership, but
everybody else just had a glazed look on their face. We've got to be able to take coaching better
and take accountability better out there on the court because we are going to
play a fired up Kentucky team who is going to try to win this SEC just like we
are."
On best conference record
"Hey, it's
Valentine's Day, and there is a lot of love right here. I've got a lot of love for my basketball
team. And some day I expect them to go
out there, and we shoot 46%, and we 22 out of 26 from the line, and we
outrebound them by 12. But then
normally, we're not going to win a game that we're giving up what we gave up to
them percentage wise. We were playing
great defense the first ten minutes of the ball game, but then it was give or
take after that. We've got to be able to
sub and get our continuity going better with our subs then what we had
tonight. We can't keep playing those
kids 35 minutes a ball game. We've got
to have double figures from those kids on the bench. Peyton has got to hit those shots. Williams has got to play better, and I'm
hoping this might be a breakout game for Scott.
But hey, I've got a lot of answers for that spot."
On Pratcher's play since last
meeting against Kentucky
"She's never
flustered. She just handles the thing
and works well with Bone. She's very
good in traffic coming down and finding the open person. Most point guards shoot too much; sometimes,
she doesn't shoot enough. She would
rather deliver it, stay out of the spotlight, and just do her job, and that's
just the way her personality is.
Pratcher is solid; she is really going to have her work cut out against
O'Neal. O'Neal basically won the game at
Kentucky. I know Mathis had 24 points or
something, but the point guard play was tremendous. We've got to quit turning the ball over
against pressure, and that's what Kentucky did against us."
Kelsey Bone
On allowing the comeback
"I think a
lot of it has to do with continuity through subs. Sometimes you see a big lead
and get a little comfortable, so I think everybody has to be ready for the
opportunity. We get the big momentum swing with Adrienne's shot at the buzzer
but there was a drop off. When we drop off in scoring there is a drop off in
defense. To me that is a sign of immaturity and we have got to fix that on the
practice floor or it will come back to bite us. "
On game and high stats
"My teammates
just know how to get me the ball. I take
pride and I am excited to play with a group of guards that can post feed; it's
a lost art of basketball. Florida played single coverage so I took advantage of
it. Coach has been on my case about getting to the free throw line, and I
finally did it and made a couple. Without my teammates I wouldn't get those
opportunities."
On looking ahead
"I look
forward in the morning after class. Our last few games are so tough and it's a
strenuous schedule, it's the hardest of the top teams that anyone has left. We
need all of our students and fans; it's going to be a fight, they are a great
team. I think a game like tonight helps us going into Kentucky. Now we know what we need to work on going into
a top ten team. We haven't fared too well against top ten opponents this
year."
On team development since
Kentucky
"Adrienne Pratcher
is what has improved since the last time we played Kentucky. She is just
playing with a ton of confidence and she is leading this team. Our focus has
improved. We don't have the luxury of looking ahead. This is a new conference
so we can't look ahead and know what's next, so we have to focus game-by-game
and step-by-step. It forces us to focus on each game."
Adrienne Pratcher
On allowing the comeback
"Early in
the first we defended very well, but late in the second we started getting away
from what we know. We did a very good job of keeping them off the free throw
line. Early in the second half we struggled and gave up way too many threes."
On buzzer beater
"When we got
the rebound the first thing I did was look up at the clock. I didn't just throw
it up; it was kind of a shot, I worked on it this week in practice. It is
definitely the longest shot I've made. I worked on it three times this week
after practice. I knew it was going in when it left my hands."
On team development since
Kentucky
"I think we have
matured way more. I think our guards understand the importance of being able to
defend a player like Mathis. I think our rebounding has improved even on the
defensive end. I think we have matured together as a team."
Florida Head Coach Amanda Butler
Opening Statement
"We have to
give credit to A&M and Kelsey for setting the tone from the beginning.
Basically every time she touched the ball she made something good happen for
them. Based on what we've seen this year, conference and non-conference, she is
the most dominant post player in the country and I think she deserves that
title. Our post players didn't have an impact tonight, which was disappointing.
At the same time I'm very proud of our young players and our fight."
On comeback
"We shot the ball very well. We just finally
started buckling down and getting some stops. We didn't match up with Bone no
matter who we put on her. We knew that if we did what we needed to do we could
fight our way back into it. I thought we showed a great deal of resiliency and
confidence and belief in one another."
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