Aggies get by Albany, 69-47 for seventh straight win in NCAAs

BOX SCORE: LINK

Quick recap

COLLEGE STATION — When it comes to March Madness — whether it's men's or women's basketball — anything goes. No seeding is safe and nearly any team in the "Big Dance" can get hot and beat just about anybody.

The defending champion and No. 3-seeded Texas A&M women's squad found itself in a dogfight through the first 23 minutes of its opening round contest vs. No. 14-seeded Albany Saturday at Reed Arena. But in the end, the Aggies were too much to handle down the stretch, as they rolled to a 69-47 victory.

With the win, the Ags move on to the second round. They'll face Arkansas — Gary Blair's old program — Monday at 8:30 p.m. to close out the College Station pod. The Razorbacks beat Dayton 72-55 in the first round game played in Reed Arena prior to the Aggies'.

Texas A&M shot 55.2 percent from the field in the second half and hit five out of six three-point attempts after the halftime break. For the game, the Ags shot 46.6 percent and 58.3 percent (7-of-12) on threes. A&M was just 8-of-18 (44.4 percent) at the foul line … an area that has haunted the team at times this season.

Tyra White came back from a left foot injury to lead the way for A&M, scoring 18 points and pulling down seven rebounds. She was 8-of-13 from the field and scored 12 points in the first half to give the team a lift when no other player was performing well early on.

Adaora Elonu added 13 points, four rebounds and three steals for the Ags. Alexia Standish scored all 12 of hers by draining four threes after the break.

The Ags got the job done on the defensive end, holding the Great Danes to just 31.7 percent shooting and forcing 24 turnovers. Albany was able to out-rebound A&M by 15 and pulled down 23 offensive boards.

Ebone Henry was the only Dane in double figures, scoring 14 points and grabbing nine boards. She also dished two assists and came up with three steals. Julie Forster posted eight points and 12 rebounds before fouling out late.

The Great Danes were thinking upset and gave A&M all it could handle early on, outplaying the home team for the first half and change.

Albany went on a 6-0 run early in the second to tie the game at 32-32 before the defending champs finally woke up, started hitting shots against the UA zone and got things rolling on both ends of the floor.

Elonu put A&M on top, 34-32 on a fastbreak layup off of a steal. Sydney Carter, who scored just five points in the game, followed with a three to make it 37-32. The Aggies rolled from there, scoring nine straight points as part of a 14-2 run that made it 51-38 maroon.

From there, the defensive intensity absolutely locked down the Great Danes offense — the visiting team managed to scored just five points over the final 7:26 of the game.

The Aggies will square off against future SEC rival Arkansas Monday at Reed Arena with a trip to the Sweet 16 on the line. Razorbacks head coach Tom Collen was a former assistant of Gary Blair at Arkansas, and with A&M assistant Vic Schaefer leaving for Mississippi State, Monday's game will feature three future SEC West head coaches.

Tipoff on Monday between the Ags and Hogs is at 8:30 p.m.

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Gabe & Logan: Locker Room Chat with Tyra White

On getting back healthy and playing well…

“It meant a lot after sitting out the last tournament. It was needed for my foot, but being able to come back here and play the first two rounds in College Station means a lot. The other guards really stepped up last week in the Big 12 Tournament.”

On stepping up and playing well in the first half…

“I think it was really big to get the momentum. I had a talk with the coaches last night, they actually called me and told me to be more aggressive in this tournament, so that’s kind of what I wanted to do.”

On the difference between the first and second halves…

“I think it was our defense and pressuring them. We gave up some offensive boards that could have been avoided but overall we wanted to get the ball inside and have Kelsey (Bone) create off of the double team and I think she did a good job of passing out of it. (Alexia) Standish hit a couple threes so I think we did a really good job in the second half.”

On the matchup against Arkansas…

“We haven’t watched film so we’ll probably do that tomorrow. Coach Blair talked to us about him being at Arkansas and they play just like us with the style of tempo. They get good rebounds with their post players so it will be a challenge for us, but I think our posts and our guards will handle it pretty well.”

On the 14-2 run early in the second half that helped push the team to victory…

“Every time we get a run it’s a momentum booster for us going into the next phase of the game. When (Sydney) Carter hits a shot, it gets everybody pumped up, so she is kind of like the Energizer bunny out there. Whenever she gets "crunk," everyone follows her.”

On her approach in the NCAA Tournament as a senior…

“It’s always good motivation because you never know when your last time to play is. Being able to play in College Station against Arkansas, who Coach Blair and Coach Harris coached for is letting them pump us up. Then A&M is going to the SEC next year, so that is another booster, too.”

On playing for the departing Vic Schaefer and defending the national title…

“Vic (Schaefer) came to us when he made the announcement after the selection show. He said he wanted to finish this ride out for the next three weeks, so he has our dedication and we have his. We’re just trying to get back to the Final Four and defend our national championship all at once. It’s going to be tough, but it’s something we can handle.”

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Texas A&M post-game quotes

Head Coach Gary Blair

Opening statement...

"First, I thought Albany did a tremendous job. They brought the fight to us, they were the better team in the first half. Minus their turnovers, they probably would’ve been ahead. They outhustled, got loose balls and finished. They’re very good at driving and finishing, and we’re not very good at that. I thought Tyra White’s shot right before halftime gave us a little bit of momentum. We made some adjustments at halftime. We switched to a different zone offense, and it was better. We were able to isolate Standish on the backside.

"Tyra was pretty good offensively pretty much the whole day. We had to expend a lot more energy than I wanted to this game. Forster plays like Chelsea Poppins at Iowa State, with all that heart. Carter did not have a good game offensively, but if she’s making a mistake on one end, she’s going to get it done correctly on the other end. I thought Carter’s defense on their point guard was very good. "

On Alexia Standish's performance and potential...

"Her boyfriend on the baseball team probably needs to be in there too and fix that Tommy John. She’s going to be pressed, she’s been pressed all year, and generally she’s handled it very well. We want her to be able to bring the ball up the court against pressure. I can’t keep wearing Carter down because it takes away from our offense if she has to bring it up all the time. Lexi just has to be a little bit better about it, but that’s all part of being a freshman. As long as she has that gun in her holster and can fill it up, I’ll excuse some of her mistakes.

"I thought Pratcher was doing a pretty good job in the first half, that’s why I left her in there. The game was starting to get very physical and I needed a more physical presence in the point. Second half we needed execution, and Lexi gave me the execution."

On being the higher seed and handling overperforming lower seeds...

"You play with no fear, you look how Dayton played in the first half, they were up by 15. They were playing so good with execution. Generally what happens in the second half after I saw what happened to Bill Self in the other night with Kansas. Keep it simple stupid. That’s what our offense was supposed to be early. And everybody early was open for a reason and we turned into a jump shooting team against a zone. Get it inside, don’t turn it over when you get it inside, if you do miss, get offensive boards which we were not getting in the first half. I just think they had a great game plan.

"Sometimes the team that’s favored plays not to lose and they don’t deliver the first blow. That’s what you have to do when you’re the stronger team and supposedly the better team, you have to deliver the first blow, which we didn’t in this game. Albany delivered the first blow in this game, and it gave them confidence. They played with the confidence of their head coach. She’s done an outstanding job with her team. I’m proud of our basketball team. When we’re not our best, we were still able to win by 20. We had some kids step up in the second half. "

On the key to the 14-2 run in the second half...

"Shot selection, running your offense, scoring deep into your possession. They were playing a real wide zone and they were dropping a guard down to double on Bone. We found it and Kelly Bond made some adjustments to what we were trying to do. We were trying to save a little bit of that zone offense for Arkansas, but I had to use everything we had. The run was good, but was it a defensive run or was it an offensive run? We’re forcing turnovers and converting. I know Adaora made a great steal, Carter made the three.

"They might not see in their league that much pressure that we can bring on people. Arkansas sees it in their league. We’re going to have to be a lot better halfcourt defensively then expecting our full court press to be effective against Arkansas."

On his impression of Arkansas and the job Head Coach Tom Collen has done...

"I’m happy for Tom. I remember I went to the Final Four at Arkansas in the fifth year in a five-year contract. And this is Tom’s fifth year, and he’ll get a new contract because of this. They play poised, that’s what the SEC is all about, it doesn’t matter what sport that you’re in, they’re very physical. They can bring Williams off the bench to do what she did in the first half and the kid from Georgia in the second half. Those would be starters everywhere else. Ricketts is as good as advertised.

"Tom has done an excellent job of not letting his team get down. Last year, they lost all the close games. This year they started off 0-3 against three of the best teams in the league and then lost to the bottom team in the league, Mississippi. Most teams would’ve cratered. They won eight in a row, they’re playing well. When they miss it, they go fetch it. We’re going to have to be very smart to play with Arkansas. They’re on house money right now. Obama has picked us to lose. We need to show the nation we’re defending national champions, and no one gives us any credit. We’re not on ESPN, they have Baylor’s 2005 National Championship, they have all the other teams, they’re not expecting much from this basketball team.

"But if we can roll in here with about 9,000 fans, I’d like to show the country that we’re not last year’s team, we’re this year’s team. And I’m proud of this year’s team."

On Tyra White's work to get back to this point...

"She was playing well in there and Kelly Bond was telling me foot was starting to hurt, so I got her out of their immediately and we can ice it and get it ready. She’s a gamer, she’s played through pain before. It’s not going to get any worse, it’s not going to get any better until the season is over. Tyra was so instrumental in this game because she can create her own shot better than any of my other starters that are out there. When you have the ability to go up to the elbow and get your shot off.  It’s not a set shot, she can create her own shot and that’s special. "

On whether White will become a go-to person in the Tournament...

"I think so. She did it all last year, she’s going to do it at the next level. She really played a smart ball game. Defensively she got burned a few times, but hey Carter got burned a few times. Adaora got burned a lot. We did a pretty good job of hedging screens. We did a pretty good job of letting them take it down into the shot clock. That was their game plan, play a five second offense. Keep it in the hands of their ball handler. A couple times Tyra got stuck on that kid and she did as good as she could because she’s just a good solid player. I like Tyra White, I like her, but we’re going to need her for 40 minutes against Arkansas."

On how A&M was unprepared to start the game...

"Jump shooting against a zone, not basket attacking. We make a couple passes then we panic and we say ‘we have to put it up because I’m open.’ Keep working for the good to great shot. And Bone ha got to score and Carla has got to score when they’re in there without putting the ball on the floor against the zone. You have to score in a hurry. And the most important thing to score in a hurry is when you can offensive rebound and get some putbacks and hopefully make a free throw. I could take all you sports writers out there and y’all could probably out shoot us at the free throw line. We’ve got to do a better job."

On Standish delivering despite the pressure put on her...

"A lot of times in the zone I can put Tyra out in front because she’s taller. I put Carter out front a couple of times and we would get Standish over there in the corner. Bone takes up a lot of people. They’re going to stop Bone first before they stop Standish in the corner. That’s the respect factor that Bone gets. She might not have scored a lot, but she took a lot of people with her and we were able to free up a lot of shooters."

On whether he sensed anything different after the 32-32 tie...

"I sensed we were in a hell of a ball game. I did not want to sit there and have Lehigh come into my gym and win that ball game. Those upsets on the men’s side happened in neutral courts. I was there at Stanford in ’98 when Harvard beat Stanford on Stanford’s court. We watched it. I thought we started to play a little tight. But hey, it’s 40 minutes. We played a great 20 minutes in the second half. But they hit some tough shots in the first half. I mean Henry through it off the glass one time from the corner. I mean come on, she’s pretty good but they were getting the breaks and we were not getting the breaks.

"When you have that good of a defense and turn the ball over, why can’t you score on offense on the fast break or secondary break? That is something we’ve struggled with all year. We’ve have to be better in transition offense to reward our defense for the job that they’ve done to create the turnover."


G Alexia Standish

On the game's physicality...

"It was definitely a very physical game. As a freshman I definitely need to get in the weight room and work on my strength. Going into the tournament, the refs are going to let us play a little more, a little harder, let some fouls slide. For me, I need to be a little more physical to get through traps and break the press."

On her shooting in the game...

"I missed the first two shots I took in the second half, that might’ve been excitement or being anxious and not focusing on my form. But I came out in the second half a little more calm and ready to shoot the ball with my feet ready. Once I hit one, I kid of felt it and got a little more confident and my shots went in."

On the Aggies responding after the 32-32 tie...

"I think this is just a very defensive motivated team. I think that our defense is what got us back in the game. When we play hard tenacious defense, usually our offense on the offensive end of the court goes well for us as well."

On White's return to the lineup...

"Yeah it was definitely a boost. It was a lot of weight off of some of the guards’ shoulders. She’s a great player. With defense, you have to guard her, so that left some of us open for shots."


F Adaora Elonu

On the key to the14-2 run early in the second half...

"Our defense. I think we just stepped it up with our press. They weren’t able to get it in and if they did, they were rushing it and we were able to capitalize with our steals. And convert. And I think like coach said, Kelsey did a good job passing the ball and Tyra did a good job scoring the ball. But what helped us was our defense with our press."

On Albany bringing the fight to A&M early on...

"First half, I think my shots were a little too rushed, and they just came out really hard competing and we didn’t match that intensity that they had. But we should know better to expect that from them. But we didn’t’ match that in the first half, and especially with the run. But I think we came out in the second half with the adjustments our coaches made, especially in our zone offense and we shot a way better percentage in the first half."

On having White back...

"It was a good boost. When she was out in the Big 12 tournament that we played, coach had confidence in the other guards to come in and know she can be relieved and that they can just pick it up right where she left it off. But having her back is good. We all want our teammates back."


G Tyra White

On returning from injury and playing at home...

"It felt good just not to have to pack all the stuff and do all the travel and airport stuff and be able to sleep in our own bed. When we first saw the crowd, it was kind of exciting for us to see all the fans come back and everything like that. It was real exciting to be able to play the first two rounds here in College Station. I know it was exciting for me, pretty sure for my teammates as well."

On the way she played tonight...

"Just not being able to play in Kansas City last week was kind of rough for me. But I knew it was best for me to be able to wait for this tournament. Last week I had a talk with Coach Harris that I needed to step up for the team because I’m kind of a leader. I don’t speak a lot, but I let my game speak for me. I guess I was just kind of anxious to play."


G Sydney Carter

On moving on despite the struggle...

"We’re in this to win. Being a senior, you definitely don’t want to go out with a loss in the first round at your own place. So it’s big for us to get this win and give us momentum going into the Arkansas game. From what I’ve seen, I think we both kind of play the same style of basketball. So it’s going to be neck and neck on Monday. This gives us a little momentum. That second half that we played, we did a really good job on the offensive end, so we’re going to have to carry that momentum in the Arkansas game."

On the first half...

“I don’t think we settled down. We allowed them to take us out of our game and get us a little rattled. Obviously, that’s frustrating, because I’m supposed to be the eyes out there for Coach Blair. I’m supposed to be his leader. So I think it’s my job out there to get everybody to calm down and play our game. It’s definitely frustrating to hear him yelling on the sidelines, telling me I’m not doing a good job. I think that it’s my time to answer the call. We just got rattled and didn’t settle down until the second half. That can give us some trouble in the NCAA Tournament.”

On Arkansas...

“I saw the first half when Dayton was up by 14. They did have a little bit of chemistry in the second half, the little bit I did see. That’s when they started to make their run. They’re definitely going to be physical. They’re from the SEC, so Coach Blair is very familiar with their style of play. So it’s going to be who attacks their aggression with aggression on Monday night.”

On her 3-pointer in the second half that gave A&M a 37-32 lead...

“I think that gave my team some momentum, and it definitely gave me some. I was ready to hit a shot. Coach Blair said, ‘Look, it’s about to hit a shot.’ So it definitely made Coach Blair happy and it got my teammates fired up. We went on a little run from there on out. I think when I do get into the offense, and I do start hitting shots and making plays, then I think my teammates feed off that and we really start going.”

On having confidence as defending national champions...

“There’s definitely confidence, but all year we haven’t tried to live off what we did last year. We’re trying to make a name for ourselves, because this is a new team. Not everybody is going to be rooting for you. You definitely have those fans that are going to have your back. Then again, you’re going to have almost the whole world against you, like we did last year. So that’s a little bit of motivation for us. We’re going to take that and run with it and hopefully we can run all the way to Denver.”


F Kelsey Bone

“We haven’t played in about a week, so I think it was about kind of getting the jitters out of the way, adjusting. We’ve been practicing all week, but that’s always different from the game. It was about us getting our jitters out. It was more about us and just getting back in a groove and getting back confident.”

On Alexia Standish...

“That’s what we look for her to do. Our coaches have really been on her about loading up on the weakside and loading up in that corner and being able to knock down that open shot. If three people are on me, somebody somewhere is wide open. She stepped up tonight in a big way when we really needed her and knocked down those shots.”

“That was just a read that Coach Bond made through the course of the game. It was there. I think a lot of times when the ball comes to me, the defense converges on me, my teammates sometimes fall victim to just watching. When we get moving and I’m able to pass out of the double team, it’s a lot more effective.”

On at what point they realized they were in for a battle...

“In the first half, they knocked down a couple of 3s in a row. We were kind of like, ‘Whoa! Oh, boy.’ It wasn’t going to be one of those things. Again, that was more of us kind of trying to get in tune. Tyra hadn’t played with us in about three games. We were putting her back in the swing of things. I think that’s kind of played into it.”

On moving on to Arkansas...

“In the second half, you saw us get comfortable. You saw us adjust to their size. You saw us adjust to their zone. That’s what this time of the year is about: Winning and surviving. That’s what we did tonight. We started off a little shaky, and I think you’ve seen that all across the country. But we didn’t let our start affect our finish.”

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Albany post-game quotes

Head Coach Katie Abrahamson-Henderson

Opening statement...

“I just want to say we are very proud of this team. We’re winners. It doesn’t matter what happened. I just told them in the locker room that every team is going to lose; it just is a matter of time. One team is going to end up being a winner, and that is who is going to win the Final Four. It’s hard for this team to let go because this has been such a Cinderella season for us.

"It’s been amazing, and we won the America East Conference tournament and to get to the NCAA tournament for this group of young women in only a short two years with our coaching staff is just amazing. They are amazing people and amazing young women. They have a lot of fight. They’re fun to watch. I think that’s the hardest thing, is to let it go right now. We have five seniors, and it is tough to let the five seniors go, but we have everybody else back and are adding five freshmen next year.

"I thought it was a great fight. We showed a lot of intestinal fortitude in the first half, and we snuck in there and fought. I thought Julie Forster did unbelievable; she can play with anyone in the country. She is just fantastic, and Eb in the second half just had her start bringing the ball up the floor and she hit some big shots. They are just warriors and they never want to die, so I’m very proud of them. Our season is still great, and we will just continue on.”

On the team’s offensive rebounding...

“That’s what we do. For us, it’s pretty normal. We are relentless at rebounding. Obviously, Julie is amazing. Julie Forster was a walk-on. We rebound the ball. We’re really aggressive on the boards. It is really fun to watch Julie. She’s everywhere; she’s like a flying red cape with her hair just flying through the air. That’s what we do. I think that’s abnormal, probably, for a team as small as we are to do that against somebody as big as Texas A&M. We’re just that kind of scrappy, hustle team that always gets a lot of loose balls and offensive rebounds.”

On turnovers and not being able to get into a rhythm...

“Our point guards really struggled because we couldn’t get into any set. Then I just said, ‘Eb bring the ball up the floor.’ They play a lot like us. They want to press and want to pressure. They full-court press. Our point guards were really struggling, so I think that’s really what dictated that. We have tons of offensive sets but we couldn’t get into any of them. We knew that coming in, and we practiced that. It’s hard if you don’t have the players every single day to practice it. They did a great job.”

On Standish’s three-point shooting...

“Number one. It was what coach did at halftime. Basically, we were playing behind Bone, so he threw the ball into Bone. He took a high post diver and dove her down so Julie had to come help and Bone just threw it opposite. She [Standish] was wide open, and somebody like that can hit wide-open shots. We stopped doing that and doubling down and started fronting Bone so they didn’t get those shots. It was an adjustment the coaches made, a great adjustment he made. Obviously those are big shots for a freshman to hit, but she was wide, wide open.”

On starting Megan Craig...

“She’s 6’9”. We needed some body in there on Kelsey Bone and their rebounding. I think she did a great job, and she is a freshman. She did an amazing job. Then we came in with Tabitha, and obviously you saw the tremendous drop in height. We usually play four guards, but we just couldn’t play four guards tonight because they are just too big. They would have killed us, not that they didn’t already. But just in the first half, I thought Megan did a good job of playing behind her, and it was hard for her to get her shots off.”

“They’re amazing young women. We started this season with a lot of goals and the first one was to get the Albany Cup against Siena. The second was to win the conference. And the third was to get to the NCAA tournament. And they did it all. It’s pretty amazing for them. When I first got to Albany a short two years ago, these young ladies acted like girls and now they’re women. They have empowered themselves and decided they are going to do it. I didn’t recruit any of them but Megan Craig and Sarah Royals and the other two freshmen that didn’t play.

"This is a team of young ladies that decided to buy into what we were teaching them and I just went in there and empowered them as young women and gave them a lot of fight, no quit, and no die. ‘Can’t’ wasn’t in their vocabulary anymore. Last year we were 16-14, which nobody expected, and then this year we were fifth preseason pick and we ended up winning the whole thing. It’s pretty amazing, and teams don’t do that a lot. It’s a tribute to these young people. I say it’s a Cinderella team. They did a great job and we are very proud of them. The first thing I said to them was ‘Get your heads up because you guys are winners. No matter what, we are going to go back and have some banners in our gym for the first time ever.’ There are no banners up in our gym so that’s pretty neat for us.

"It is hard for them to quit and have it end, but they are going to walk into those gyms everyday, and those five seniors are going to get some rings for winning the championship. They’re going to have banners up and it is going to be about them. Those are the things they are going to remember. They’re not going to remember this game, but they’re going to remember their teammates and have a ring and walk into our gym with a couple banners up which is really neat. Obviously there are plenty up in here, but we will have one for the first time so I’m very proud of them.”


G/F Ebone Henry

On team’s accomplishments this season...

“We accomplished a lot this year. We set a lot of goals for ourselves this summer, and we accomplished all of them. Even though we lost this game, I feel like we had a great season. We proved everyone wrong. No one expected us to be here, let alone be in the game with a team like Texas A&M. I’m just proud of all my teammates for just fighting and believing in ourselves. We knew that going into this game, no one would think we would win. I’m just glad we went out and fought. The people coming back know how this feels now. We’re going to work harder over the summer and get back here.”

On playing A&M at home...

“I think in the non-conference games that we did have this year, like playing at Iowa and Toledo, we saw fans like this and played in environments like this. So it didn’t really bother us today.”


F Julie Forster

On Albany out-rebounding Texas A&M by 15...

“If I had heard that, I would have thought we would have won that game. I think really what hurt us was our turnovers. Obviously one of our big things was boxing out and getting in the boards going into the game. That’s a pretty good accomplishment in my eyes to hear that.”

On A&M’s run early in the second half...

“I think just in the zone, they knew how we were playing it. Basically they were getting open looks, ball-faking, and getting into the spots where we struggled. They saw that and they definitely took advantage of that, so that’s just something for next year we are going to improve on.”

On being able to get rebounds and play against A&M...

“I think we were just really aggressive. On defense it was definitely boxing out and also then just going to the ball. There were times where we shouldn’t have gotten rebounds, and it was a girl like Eb between two girls and she pulled it down between two six-something girls. Offensively, I think we really crashed. I think we just tried to be aggressive. We knew we were going to have to rebound to win this game, and I just think we focused on that offensively and defensively and just tried to stick with that.”


G Adrienne Jones

On the season...

“It’s kind of hard, because I’m senior. But it was a great accomplishment. We made history. I’m just glad to be a part of this and experience it.”
 

On her steal and layup that tied game at 32-32 in second half...

“We feed off our defense, so we always believe in ourselves. And we believe we can beat any team, or give any team competition. The beginning of the game, we thought we could come out there and fight and prove to everybody we do belong here, and we will make this a game.”

On at what point A&M figured out it was in for a battle...

“The second half they made adjustments. They’re a Big 12 team, so I guess they figured it out. But they didn’t know we weren’t backing down. They made adjustments. That’s what happens.”

On Albany’s defense in the first half...

“The defense was good. You should ask them how our defense was.”


C Megan Craig
          
“We had to really, really box out. We knew they had some big posts in there. We knew everyone had to box out. We couldn’t just have the posts, me and Julie Forster, [rebounding]. We knew we had to box out and make sure we created the space we needed to get the rebounds. We just needed to judge the placement of where the ball was coming. That’s how we knew where to put our bodies, where to grab the rebounds and just kind of reach and pass out to our guards.”

On surprising people with their play...

“To be honest, we never lost faith in ourselves. We knew had the heart and the determination to persevere. We didn’t want this to be our last game. We wanted to do it for our seniors. We just kept pushing and pushing. When we were so close at halftime, we were in the exact place we wanted to be. Even though we were down, it was only in single digits. We knew we still had a very high chance of catching them, and we did. That was one of the best things that could have happened for us.”

On if A&M wore Albany down...

“I don’t know. We had trouble scoring at times. That was probably our main problem. We just had trouble scoring at times. Our defense was great. We didn’t have trouble with that.”

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Post-game notes

* For the 16th time this season, Texas A&M used the starting lineup of Alexia Standish, Sydney Carter, Tyra White, Adaora Elonu and Kelsey Bone … The Aggies are 11-5 with this starting lineup.

* Texas A&M improves to 1-0 in its first meeting with Albany.

* The Aggies move to 16-7 all-time in NCAA postseason play in their ninth all-time appearance. In addition, they have won seven straight NCAA Tournament games.

* A&M is 7-2 all-time in the NCAA First Round and has won six straight first-round games. In addition, the Aggies are 1-0 against the No. 14 seed.

* The Aggies are 9-6 on national TV this season.

* The Aggies are 19-2 when leading at the half.

* Texas A&M head coach Gary Blair is now 14-5 at A&M and 28-16 in his career in NCAA Tournament games.

* A&M snapped a 10-game winning streak for Albany.

* For just the seventh time this season, A&M made five or more 3-point field goals.

* The Aggies outscored the Great Danes 29-14 off turnovers.

* In the second half, A&M shot 55 percent from the floor and held Albany to just 28 percent.

* With three steals, Carter moved into ninth place on the all-time list with 201 steals.

* Elonu set a new A&M individual record for most games played with her 139th contest today.

* White scored in double figures for the 26th time this season, Elonu for the 21st time and Standish for the fifth, including three of the last four games.

* White’s 18 points matched her NCAA Tournament career best and it was her eighth straight postseason game in double figures.

* Elonu’s three steals were an NCAA Tournament career best.

* Karla Gilbert had a season and NCAA Tournament career-best four blocked shots.

* Standish remains hot from beyond the arc shooting 65.4 percent (17-26) over last seven games.