Texas A&M Aggies
1-on-1: Adaora Elonu
Arkansas Razorbacks
Texas A&M Women's Basketball
Aggies advance to Sweet 16 with gritty two-point win over UA
BOX SCORE: LINK
No. 6-seeded Arkansas had a stranglehold on the momentum after coming back from 13 points down late to take the lead.
A raucous and intense home crowd suddenly sat in stunned silence after the Razorbacks' 19-5 run over the final eight minutes of the game.
As the mid-90s commercial used to say right about here: No Fear!
Needing to make one to tie and two for the lead, Carter - statistically the greatest foul shooter in school history - stepped to the line and drained two of the biggest free throws of her life to put Texas A&M back on top, 60-59.
And it was only fitting that the Aggies would have to come through with one more defensive stop to seal a hard fought victory, in associate head coach Vic Schaefer's final game at Reed Arena.
The Razorbacks had the ball in the closing seconds and got a decent look at the basket, but Quistelle Williams' jumper in the late rimmed out and Tyra White grabbed the rebound with less than two seconds remaining.
White made the first one, then purposely missed the second attempt, allowing the clock to expire to give A&M a 61-59 victory.
The defending-champion Aggies advance to Raleigh for the Sweet 16, where they'll face No. 2-seeded Maryland on Sunday.
Carter came through huge in the clutch, but fellow senior Adaora Elonu was the star of the game for the maroon and white. Elonu led all scorer with 23 points while playing every second of the contest. She also pulled down seven rebounds in the win.
Elonu was especially effective in the second half, scoring 17 points on 6-of-11 shooting after the halftime break. She was the only Aggie in double figures.
Kelsey Bone added eight points and 10 rebounds for A&M. Tyra White appeared to be nursing her banged up left foot but managed to play 36 minutes. She was virtually ineffective throughout her time on the hardwood, scoring just three points and committing eight turnovers. But the last of her six rebounds was the biggest, as it essentially locked down the win for the home team.
Matt Sachs, TexAgs
Adaora Elonu was the only Aggie in double figures, leading all scorers with 23 points in the victory.
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As a team, the Aggies shot 42.9 percent from the field but were just 2-of-9 (22.2 percent) on threes. A&M was exceptional at the line, making 85 percent (17-of-20) of their free throw attempts.
The Razorbacks shot 35.7 percent in the game and were held to 21.4 percent (3-of-14) from beyond the arc. UA was also very good at the charity stripe, knocking down 16-of-19 (84.2 percent) attempts.
For Arkansas players scored in double figures, led by Williams' 14 points and eight boards. Lyndsay Harris added 13 points in her final game as a Razorback. Sarah Watkins and C'eira Ricketts each had 10.
After allowing the Razorbacks to score the first four points of the game, the Aggies scored the next nine and ripped off a 13-2 run to claim an early 13-6 lead. Alexia Standish helped A&M get off and running with back-to-back threes to key the early scoring flurry.
But the Hogs came right back, tightening it up on defense and forcing bad shot after bad shot by A&M. That allowed Arkansas to go on 9-0 run of its own to go up by two, 15-13.
The two teams went back in forth for a long stretch before the Ags got hot in the final minutes of the first, riding Skylar Collins, Bone and Elonu to a 27-20 halftime lead.
A&M built its largest lead in the opening minutes of the second half, scoring nine straight once again to jump on top by 14, 36-22. But the Razorbacks never went away and continued to fight throughout the night.
Prior to Blair's designed play to get Carter to the line in the final minute of the game, Harris gave UA its first lead of the half with a leaning, one-handed runner as the shot clock expired. That put the Razorbacks on top, 59-58.
The rest, as they say, is history. Carter's drive to the basket and made free throws, one key defensive stand and one big-time rebound later, and the Ags are moving on to the round of 16 … escaping the tough-minded and extremely athletic Razorbacks by the skin of their teeth.
The time of Sunday's meeting between A&M and Maryland has yet to be determined. If the Aggies can get past the Terps, there is a chance that they could see top-seeded Notre Dame in a rematch of the 2011 national title game.
Opening statement:
"Great ball game, great atmosphere. 6100 fans, we had a great student crowd that came out and kept us in it. When you’re playing so late at night, y’all already missed deadline anyway. We had a 14-point lead. We weren’t turning the ball over, we were just missing the easy shots. And then they got on a roll, started hitting some tough shots, started taking it to rack. Then the dagger for them was Harris throwing that running one hander in. But wouldn’t you want to have Harris shooting the ball instead of anybody else ball because that’s their best shooter. Carter did a great job of taking it to the hole and make a truck collision and getting her to the free throw line. I was never so confident in my life on what we wanted to do. But I had to use my timeouts before and after to make sure we set up our defense. The last play of the game, when they came down and went into their 1-4 with the high post screen, we’ve worked on that all week. It was defended as well as we could. The person they had shoot the ball I don’t think was the person they really wanted to, but we defended everything really well. Williams just missed a pretty easy shot, but it was contested well and Tyra did a great job of getting the rebound and we missed the second free throw on purpose to take a second off of the clock, which we did. Great ball game for the fans. It was a great way to end the year at Reed Arena, on a positive note. It was a great way for Coach Schaefer to coach his last game here in Reed Arena. Our first game we won was against Arkansas-Little Rock back in ’03-’04. And now we won this one against Arkansas. And I believe we started a great rivalry between these two schools, and a good friendly one. This isn’t Texas and A&M. This is Arkansas, and I’m paying taxes in both states. We made it a little tough on us, but I think Arkansas had a lot to do with that with how hard they played and how well they played down the stretch and how well they shot the free throws."
If we would’ve told you before the game that Tyra White would have two shots and eight turnovers, do you think that you would have won the game?
"At halftime Bone was two for eight, Tyra hadn’t taken a shot and had six turnovers. Carter hadn’t made a shot, and I said, 'We’re up by seven and should’ve been up by 11 or 13.' I said how in the heck, but that’s how deep this team is in production. We had no problem putting Collins in because White wasn’t rebounding early, and she didn’t do a thing until the second half. Carter was struggling a little so we just left Collins in there and kept rotating Carter and them out. Lexi gave us the jump-start with the two big threes that we had to have and then they started finding her. Our bench, we would not have won this game without Carla or Pratcher or Collins. You have to have a good bench, and there’s always a new storyline or a new star stepping up and those three were probably the three most important people in the ball game."
Talk about the mindset to leave White in there basically the entire second half, despite her struggles.
"White was playing well in the second half. She missed two shots, but other than that she was playing defense, she was rebounding. You go with sometimes who brought you to the dance. Who’s a hot shooter? Skylar is not Jeremy Lin. Look what Carter did. Did anybody say take Carter out also? She was 0-4. But look what Ricketts did against her, Ricketts was 3-13. She did a great job on her. Sometimes you have to leave somebody in because the team is comfortable with what’s going on. It’s not all about points, it’s about when you need somebody. When I’m going down to the wire, it’s going to be White and Carter on the floor almost for sure in that situation."
In a game where you’re not making your shots around the basket but you have more focus at the free throw line. Did
that percentage counteract that a little for you?
"I told Carter, one of the keys on the board, number 4, was rebounds, turnovers, free throws and bunny shots. We missed the bunny shots in the first half; we missed the bunny shots in the second half. We got the rebounds in the first half, we were plus seven. Free throws, we were good the whole day. But the bunny shots normally are driving layups and we’re missing. This time on driving layups we got fouled and made the free throws. But our post players just got a little bit nervous; we missed a bunch of stuff. Bone tried to shoot a couple 20-footers and she knows better than that. But one of the worst things was when the girl Bone was guarding drills one the play before. So what do you want to do, you want to try to answer. We had a little conversation after that. One of the most important passes she made in the second half, she was wide open, thought about taking it, and passed it over and I think we scored on that play."
Coach Collen said that when the shot that Harris put up actually went in, part of him felt that it could’ve been the Razorback’s night. What was going through your mind and what did you think about how your girls responded?
"I guarantee you I thought that was the shot that did us in right there. But our kids have come back. We did this against USC in a 71-70 game. We led just about the whole game against USC and they came down and hit a shot and we came down and Carter hit a shot to win the ball game. These kids don’t quit, particularly the seniors. They’ve been through so much. But give Harris credit, she made a tough running one-hander. Anyone else would’ve threw it, she shot it. A good shooter can get it up anywhere, it’s like a quarterback throwing the ball that way underneath, he can still complete the pass. Harris is a great player; she turned it on the second half and hit some big shots. Williams kept them in the game in the first half just like Collins kept us in the game the first half. So two unsung people get the job done to make it better for the starters in the second half. Harris is a very good player and that’s the way you’re supposed to leave with Harris and Ricketts and Daniels."
Talk about those last eight minutes of the game.
"I think we were up 14 if I’m not mistaken, and all of a sudden they just started hitting shots. The zone really bothered them when we went to it. Then all of a sudden we went out of it for a while and they just made a couple of shots. They got on the offense boards in the second half. One time they just jumped flat over Carter. It wasn’t an over the back call, Watkins or Williams just went in and made the play. They just got aggressive and went after it and that’s typical SEC ball. If you shoot it, you go fetch it, they’re very good at that. This is one of the best ball clubs we’ve played all year. The game looked ugly in the first half due to our 12 turnovers, but other than that I thought we played a pretty good ball game and I thought Arkansas was solid all game. I said if we could hold them to 35 percent, I thought we could win the game because I thought we could score enough inside, and we had enough inside shots, but we missed the shots. But give them credit, because they were contesting really well."
Did you think you could catch them flat-footed with that inbounds play to get the ball down the floor?
"No, we were trying. That 2-2-1, normally you just go a 2-1-2 against it. But we were wasting 10 seconds every time. We had to try something. I had called it a couple other times and my 5 player had forgotten to get into a 1-4. We called that thing twice when Carla was in there and she never got there. We tried to break it and get that thing going a little faster. That’s not a press where they’re trying to steal the ball; they’re trying to take time off of our zone offense, which they were very effective at. By the way, the zone offense in the second half when we ran that triple post and Carter and Pratcher made those two passes across to Elonu and Gilbert, those were our two best offensive plays of the day. It was open all night but we just couldn’t see it. We finally were effective at running those two plays and got the lob across."
Talk about how satisfying it is to get to the Sweet 16?
"Homer, this was more pressure than the National Championship game. You’re in Arkansas for 10 years. I’ve got a lot of friends and family. This was more pressure on me than winning the National Championship. Thanking the people who made it possible to host the first and second round. They made it possible; I didn’t want to let them down. This was not the matchup I was looking forward to, playing Arkansas. I would’ve rather had wanted to play Nebraska in the six hole. And I’m sure Tom would’ve rather had played in Little Rock in front of a sellout. But this is the NCAA doing a storyline game like they did with Louisville and Maryland, like they did with Kansas and Nebraska. They don’t do that in the men’s side. They put you where you belong. We’re trying to generate crowd and atmosphere and trying to get TV type matchups. But this is the most pressure I’ve had personally. I tried to not let it affect the team. It was pressure on Vic too because this was going to be his last game he coached here. He wanted to go out a winner and he did. Now we’re going to Maryland, we feel good about our matchup, we feel good about playing Maryland. They’re going to be very similar to us, and we’re looking forward to playing them. We’re both defending National Champions. In one year or not, we both have won it."
Talk a little bit about Elonu and how she stepped up.
"She was hitting their mid-range shot, she’s probably the best mid-range shooter that I’ve had here to play the four position. When she just catches and goes straight up. She made a tough layup early in the ball game. I think she posted up and turned around and made a left-hander or something. I thought that was tough shot and it gave her confidence. Late in the game when she missed the easy one, we can all do that. Elonu, she knows she did not play well at Baylor. She knew she needed to step up and make a difference. This is why I could not use Gilbert and Bone together, which I planned on doing. And put Assarian in if Watkins had gone off enough on us to let those two have a WWF bash, they would’ve been great against each other. Elonu was solid, making great decisions. Only thing she did wrong, she missed a couple of layups at the end. Other than that, it was one of her best ball games under pressure that she’s played. What a great kid. Again, I would like to thank our administration. I’d like to thank our committees, I’d like to thank the media coverage; it’s been excellent. And folks, we’re big time. I’d like to thank everybody, the little lady over there from Cal who ran the thing; I hope she’ll come back. We can put on a show and we can host championships better than any school around. We know how to host championships, and we’ve done a great job and we’re going to a better job when we’re back here next year.
Guard Sydney Carter
As a senior in Reed Arena, last moments, was there any doubt you weren’t going to make both of those?
"Not at all. I knew that coach Blair and coach Schaefer definitely wanted me to get to the line because they trust me at the line and those are like layups for me. I have to credit Bone; she knew she was going to me the whole time. And I don’t think she ever doubted who she was going to pass the ball to. And that was a flashback to the Iowa State game that we had here and I wanted to get to the basket and like coach said, make a truck collision. I knew I had to get to the line because I had the previous four that I had already shot."
Coaches have confidence in your free throws, but also that your defense is going to come through. Does that always come true?
"I think so, I think that coach Schaefer always tells everyone that he’s going to win with me or get fired with me. I take a lot of pride in that statement because I really take pride in defense and making people uncomfortable when I’m guarding the ball. I know that every single play I’m going to be involved. I’m going to have the ball and either I need to make a deny - I’m always going to be involved. Every play down the part I’m sure that I’m doing my job on the defensive end to ensure that my team can trust me on the defense end to get a stop like we did on the last play."
You were in tight games in the NCAA tournament last year, did that help you out tonight?
"It’s definitely the experience and the chemistry. We had so many games last year where we were in tight spots. And it’s important for us to rely on each other and have trust in each other. If you don’t have that trust, you’re not going to come out on top in games like that. We’re seniors, we’ve been through wars and this is just another one that came our way and we answered the call.
Guard Skylar Collins
Is this a good example that if one of your players has an off night that y’all have others who can chip in?
"Yes, definitely. Tyra and Carter and Bone struggled from the field a little bit tonight. And so you have players like Pratcher, Carla and myself coming off the bench and just kind of making up for their missed shots or whatever they were struggling with. I think a lot of that just comes from the defensive end and when we came in the game to just get stops and get going in transition. I think those two other players did a great job coming off the bench and just stepped up for this team."
You looked pretty calm out there for such a big game, were you really that calm? Can you talk about your play in the 8 minutes you came in and made 8 points?
"I guess I was calm. I just came in focused. I knew we were in a tight spot when I came into the game. We kind of let them come back in the game at that point. So I just came in and took the shots that the defense gave me and tried to get stops on the other end and did what I had to do for this team."
Guard-Forward Tyra White
On Aggies advancing despite her off night:
“It’s a huge win for us. Nobody thought we’d make it past the second round. It was rough, but a win is a win, and we’ll take it.”
On her six first-half turnovers and eight for the game:
“It was one of those nights. I felt like I was trying to do too much on offense. That’s how it went. I’ve just got to cut them off for the next game.”
On getting the rebound on Arkansas’ missed shot with 5 seconds left:
“It was just tipped up, so I wanted to grab it. I didn’t really look at the seconds. I just knew I had to get it.”
On if it was a sense of relief after she grabbed the rebound:
“Yes. Very much.”
On this team wanting to do more than people expect:
“This was a great test game for us. We just have to get back in the film room, watch film and get prepared for Maryland.”
On Adaora Elonu and Skylar Collins saving the day for the Aggies:
“They were real huge. Skylar came in when I wasn’t hitting my shots. She came in and did a good job. Adaora did an excellent job on the boards and getting the easy buckets for us. That was huge for us.”
Forward Adaora Elonu
Could you talk about your start, you looked a lot different than you did Saturday night?
We were just reading what they were doing on defense. The coaches did a good job getting us prepared setting ball screens and rolling because they switch a lot. We tried to get our advantage once we set the screen for the post to post up on the guard. I think Kelsey and everyone else on the team did a good job of finding mismatches and we did a good job of executing."
You were in tight games in the NCAA tournament last year, did that help you out tonight?
"Yeah and I think the fact that we’re seniors and we built our chemistry later on in the season. I think it definitely helped, that the experience that we have definitely helped us with the last play where we switched for the first time and she switched off and had a great contest on No. 24. I definitely think last year’s NCAA tournament helped us."
Center Kelsey Bone
On missing seven shots in the paint and going 3-for-12 from the field:
“Oh, man, there was just a lid on the basket. But you know the beauty of this team is we have people who come off the bench. Skylar Collins came in and hit some big shots to keep us in the game. Alexia [Standish] hit two big threes, just right when we needed them. You couldn’t have told me that if Sydney [Carter], Tyra [White] and myself went 4-for-18 that we’d still get a win. But Adaora played the game of her life. Other people just stepped up tonight, and that’s what it was about.”
On if the Aggies ever had any doubts as Arkansas was rallying from 14 points down:
“We just trust in our defense. I think we work so hard. This game, this win, was for our seniors. This win was for Coach [Vic] Schaefer. This is his last game here with us. We just kept our composure. The good thing about it is we’ve seen that before. We kind of channeled back to Iowa State, and we just kept trucking. We got the big stop at the end, and we rebounded the ball.”
On Arkansas’ possession that resulted in a miss with five seconds left:
“We were expecting [C’eira]Ricketts to kind of try to take the ball. [Quistelle] Williams got loose. She missed the shot, and Tyra [White] came out of nowhere and grabbed a huge rebound and got fouled. I think that’s the beauty of it is Tyra’s shot wasn’t falling, my shot wasn’t falling, but we still found other ways to help this team get this win tonight besides just scoring.”
On lack of a celebration at the end of the game:
“We don’t think anybody expected us to win this game but us. That was the thing: We were supposed to win that game in our minds. So no, there wasn’t a big celebration, because in our minds that was what we were supposed to do.”
Opening Statement:
“You guys were there and watched the game. I just think it was a great game. I hope people all across the country got a chance to watch the last six to eight minutes and saw us make the run that we did. I can’t say enough about these kids. This senior class in particular took a chance on me five years ago when Arkansas hadn’t been to the NCAA tournament for four years. They were from everywhere: Mississippi, Kentucky, and Alabama. They came and they took a chance. They battled really hard. We had a great season. We’re disappointed that we lost this game because we know we had a chance, but we had a great season. We’re going to keep our heads up. I don’t think I have ever had a group of kids, in my fourteen years as a head coach, or a group of seniors that I’ve been through so much with in terms of the growing pains and hard work that we had to put in in order to get to where we were at and gain the level of respectability that we always wanted the University of Arkansas to get back. They accomplished that. Win or lose tonight, they would have accomplished that. I told them there’s very few senior classes that go out not on a loss. Whoever won the national championship, that’s the only one. They need to hold their heads high and be proud of what they did. It was just an exciting game, and I am proud of them.”
On the last play of the game:
“It didn’t turn out to be quite the look that we wanted. We thought the look was going to be there and it wasn’t, but we ended up getting the look anyway. The last three of four times we had run that play, we really tried to ram C’eira Ricketts down the lane on them. Every single time we had done that, she made something good happen, either kick it out or shoot a layup. The one thing we noticed was every time she did that, they were just hanging on for dear life and everybody was flowing towards her. I really felt like they were going to do everything in their power to stop her. The guard kept fighting over the top and going with her and chasing her. All night long that pop-action was there. It wasn’t one of my seniors, but it was a kid that played great two nights ago and played great again tonight. I rolled the dice on it. I felt like it was going to be a good, clean look. The guard, to her credit, started to go with Ricketts. When Ricketts stopped and turned, she came back to ‘Q’ [Quistelle Williams]. She contested it. ‘Q’ gave it up. She probably could have contested it, but she gave it up. They flowed back to C’eira, and C’eira came back to her and we got the look. Probably as the clock was ticking, I was thinking ‘do I need to call it?’ We ended up getting a pretty clean look at the basket, but it didn’t go down. It was with a kid who has played fantastic the last two games. It’s always easy to second-guess yourself and look back and think maybe I should have called this or that play or gotten it to a senior. I just felt like it was something that was going to be there for us.”
On Lyndsay’s shot and having things go their way:
“I don’t think there’s any credit. They missed a lot of shots for us. They are a team that is very sporadic offensively like us. They play defense every single night. On the days that they are making shots, they score and win. On the days they don’t, they lose. We switched to a 3-2 zone that we haven’t practiced or played for a month, but we felt like it was the right alignment for what they were doing. We ran a 2-3 zone but were small. They kept banging us on the backside. They hit us two or three times on that. We decided to go to a zone that matched big-on-big. We took a chance, and when we did that, we took that away from them and they were really ineffective. They got some looks, but I don’t think they were great rhythm looks. I thought it was a good move on the part of my defensive coordinator. They still made the play that they had to make there at the end. Who would have guessed that they would have put it in her hands with that much time on the clock and rammed it right at us. They know their kids, and he knew exactly what he wanted to get out of it. It took us a little bit off guard, so they go to the free throw line and that was the game.”
On Texas A&M’s home-court advantage:
“It’s hard to put a number on it. Honestly, we’ve been a team that hasn’t necessarily played great basketball at home, and we don’t get good crowds. The last three years when we went on the road in the SEC to places like Tennessee, Kentucky, Georgia, and South Carolina, we had elevated our game and played better In front of an opposing crowd than we played in from of our crowd at home at times. It’s hard to put a number on it. I don’t think there’s any question, if you asked me would I have played a second-round game to go to the Sweet Sixteen against just as good of an opponent but on a neutral floor, I would say absolutely. It’s tough coming down here. We’ve worked hard to try to build the reputation of this program, and had a great season. When you can get into a tussle like this with the defending national champion on national TV, I think we probably gained some respect from some people out there. Maybe now they realize we were a little bit better basketball team that maybe deserved a little more recognition as the season was going on in the polls.”
On what Lyndsay has meant to the program:
“She took a chance on us over Auburn and Alabama. She started from day one. This is a kid that has never made all-conference. I don’t know how many points she was going to end up with, 1,400-1,500 points. She is one of our best three-point shooters of all time. She has been a team captain for three years. Somehow she’s just always been left out because of a C’eira Ricketts or a Sarah Watkins, but in my mind, she is an all-conference kind of kid. She went down last year and blew out her knee, and we talked about redshirting her. She wanted no part of it. She was going to go out with this senior class and saw this as her opportunity. She’s just a tough, tough kid and has battled back. We didn’t start her at the beginning of the year, but we put her back in the starting lineup. It took us a couple of games and that’s when we went on a roll and won eight straight. She’s a great kid, and I love her like my own daughter. This whole senior class, I love all five of them to death.“
On Adaora Elonu’s play:
“She knocked down shots. I don’t think we intentionally ignored her. We were well aware of her talents. She beat us a little bit of everywhere. She beat us on the low block. She beat us knocking down some face up shots. She beat us on dump passes and offensive rebounds. I try to stay out of the defensive side of the ball a little bit because I don’t like to get into fights with my wife. That was a name that got brought up. She was very concerned with her because we normally switch a ball screen. She was worried about her ability to post up and get garbage points. She’s a kid that gets a little over-looked, but she’s an all-conference kid. She has had a great career here.”
On 19-5 run at the end:
“Our timeouts have been interesting this year. My defensive coordinator is pretty competitive and pretty fiery. She doesn’t accept mistakes very well at all. She always leads into the timeouts. She’s usually in there lighting them up pretty good, making corrections and making it known that we can’t continue to make mistakes. By the time I get in there, I know they have probably been blistered up in most occasions. By nature, I probably err on being more positive than anything else. During the course of these four seniors’ careers, I can tell you I have tried to light them up before. When I light them up, they go south on me. When I get into timeouts with them, besides talking about offensive execution, it is about talking about belief in themselves that we can do this, we’ve been knocked down before. We draw on our memories that we’ve had. Make sure that they look me in the eye and believe that they can do it. Nine time out of 10, they went out and did what they did tonight. That’s why it’s so heartbreaking for me, that they came back and did it again, but just fell one short. They worked so hard to do that.”
Guard Lyndsay Harris
On battling back to make it a close game:
“I’m very proud of my team. We’ve been through a lot, and there have been times where we didn’t think we were going to win. I think the one thing we have been able to do this year is stress to everybody not to ever give up. We’ve been in that situation so many times, and when you’re in that situation to the defending national champions and to still battle back the way we did, I couldn’t ask for anything more from anybody on that team.”
On her shot to take the one-point lead with the shot clock running down:
“That was a terrible look. I really just threw it up there hoping it would hit the rim and that we would be in position to get the offensive rebound. Luckily, it went it.”
On satisfaction of leading Arkansas back to NCAA tournament:
“It feels good. Like coach said I’m from Alabama. When I was recruited by Arkansas, I didn’t know anything about the state. My AAU coaches told me that all I had to do was come on my visit and I would commit here after one visit, and I didn’t visit any other schools. I just needed confirmation to see the campus. Ever since I’ve been here, I felt like Arkansas was the place for me. Once basketball started and I saw the loving community and the other seniors that came and how hard we worked from day one, it’s like everything just fell into place. It feels so good to be walking out the way we did. We never planned to get as far as we did this year or to break the records we broke, but we did it. After all we have been through, to finally get it our senior year feels great.”
On being down and coming back to take the lead late in the game:
“Honestly, those last few minutes I never thought we were going to lose that game. It took me back to the Tennessee game.The crowd was in it for Texas A&M and things were going right for them, but things were still going right for us. I just kept telling the team, ‘y’all we’re going to win this game.’ I never wanted them to think that we didn’t have a chance. I felt that until the time the buzzer, we had the chance to win that game. Like I said before, I’m just really proud of the run we made at the end, not giving up, and competing with the team that won the national championship last year.”
Guard C'eira Ricketts
On the last shot for Arkansas:
“We set up a drive, but we knew that they were going to cut off my drive and deny Lyndsay [Harris]. But I knew I could I draw all the defenders to me, so one of my posts is going to be open. We got the shot we wanted, but it didn’t fall for us. We couldn’t ask for a better look than what we got.”
On key to the 14-point comeback:
“Just staying together and being positive, believing in each other. We’ve been in this situation all through the season, and we knew we could do it as long as we stayed together and get stops. That’s what we did.”
On the season:
“It was a great season. We got a couple of big wins in the season. We made it here [to the NCAA Tournament]. We hadn’t been here in a long time. It’s a lot of great moments this season. I’m glad that we were able to accomplish some of these things we did while I was here, and I hope the next group can do the same.”
On establishing a rivalry with A&M:
“I think it’s going to be a battle between us two once they come to the SEC.”
Forward Quistelle Williams
On the final play for Arkansas:
“It was designed for C’eira to drive and see if she could get an open look and then kick it out to me. She drove and kicked it out. I had a look, and then I kicked it back out. She drove and then kicked it to me. I shorted it a little bit and it just didn’t fall. It should have gone in.”
Forward Sarah Watkins
On Arkansas’ slow start from the field:
“We struggled a lot this season, shooting percentage. We really used our defense to drive our offense. Shots weren’t falling. Once you get in a rut, you’ve just got to get yourself out of it.”
On how they managed to get out of shooting slump:
“I think getting better looks, slowing down. It all once again comes from defense and working hard.”
On what point they thought they were going to win after coming back from 14 down:
“I think the momentum swung when we started coming back, and we were down by maybe six. I think it was 55-49. I think the momentum might have changed right then, like we knew that we were on a little bit of a run, and we could pull this thing out.”
On establishing a rivalry with A&M:
“Really any team in the SEC is a rivalry. Every game is going to be a battle. I don’t think A&M is going to be any different once they get there.”
On Arkansas’ season:
“Seniors did a great job coming in and building this program back up, like Coach said in the locker room after the game. I just think we need to take this and build on it every year. You don’t ever want to end a season with a loss, but it’s something you’ve got to look forward to to next year, being in the tournament and hopefully getting farther than the time you did last year.”
* Texas A&M improves to 3-20 in the all-time series with Arkansas.
* The Aggies improves to 17-7 all-time in NCAA postseason play in their ninth all-time appearance. In addition, they have won eight straight NCAA Tournament games.
* A&M is 5-2 all-time in the NCAA Second Round and is 2-1 all-time against a No. 6 seed.
* The Aggies are 10-6 on national TV this season.
* The Aggies are 20-2 when leading at the half.
* Texas A&M head coach Gary Blair is now 15-5 at A&M and 29-16 in his career in NCAA Tournament games.
* Texas A&M shot a season-best 85 percent from the foul stripe (when attempting 20 more) as they made 17 of 20 attempts.
* In the first half, A&M shot 46 percent from the floor and held Albany to just 32 percent.
* With two blocked shots, Elonu moved into the eighth place on the all-time list with 86 blocks.
* With an NCAA Tournament career-best six assists, Adrienne Pratcher passed over 100 assists this season for the first time in her career.
* Elonu scored in double figures for the 22nd time this season and her 23 points were also an NCAA Tournament best.
* Skylar Collins added an NCAA Tournament career-best 8 points and three rebounds in just 8 minutes of action.
* Elonu set an A&M record for most games played in a career with her 140th contest today.
* Blair heads to his ninth Sweet Sixteen appearance and 29th NCAA Tournament game in his head coaching career.
Quick recap
COLLEGE STATION — There were 28.1 seconds left to play and the three-seeded Aggies found themselves down one point, 59-58.No. 6-seeded Arkansas had a stranglehold on the momentum after coming back from 13 points down late to take the lead.
A raucous and intense home crowd suddenly sat in stunned silence after the Razorbacks' 19-5 run over the final eight minutes of the game.
Needing to make one to tie and two for the lead, Carter - statistically the greatest foul shooter in school history - stepped to the line and drained two of the biggest free throws of her life to put Texas A&M back on top.
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With its season hanging in the balance, A&M head coach Gary Blair called timeout, drawing up a play for senior guard Sydney Carter, who drove the lane and drew a quick foul.As the mid-90s commercial used to say right about here: No Fear!
Needing to make one to tie and two for the lead, Carter - statistically the greatest foul shooter in school history - stepped to the line and drained two of the biggest free throws of her life to put Texas A&M back on top, 60-59.
And it was only fitting that the Aggies would have to come through with one more defensive stop to seal a hard fought victory, in associate head coach Vic Schaefer's final game at Reed Arena.
The Razorbacks had the ball in the closing seconds and got a decent look at the basket, but Quistelle Williams' jumper in the late rimmed out and Tyra White grabbed the rebound with less than two seconds remaining.
White made the first one, then purposely missed the second attempt, allowing the clock to expire to give A&M a 61-59 victory.
The defending-champion Aggies advance to Raleigh for the Sweet 16, where they'll face No. 2-seeded Maryland on Sunday.
Carter came through huge in the clutch, but fellow senior Adaora Elonu was the star of the game for the maroon and white. Elonu led all scorer with 23 points while playing every second of the contest. She also pulled down seven rebounds in the win.
Elonu was especially effective in the second half, scoring 17 points on 6-of-11 shooting after the halftime break. She was the only Aggie in double figures.
Kelsey Bone added eight points and 10 rebounds for A&M. Tyra White appeared to be nursing her banged up left foot but managed to play 36 minutes. She was virtually ineffective throughout her time on the hardwood, scoring just three points and committing eight turnovers. But the last of her six rebounds was the biggest, as it essentially locked down the win for the home team.
Matt Sachs, TexAgs
Adaora Elonu was the only Aggie in double figures, leading all scorers with 23 points in the victory.
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The Razorbacks shot 35.7 percent in the game and were held to 21.4 percent (3-of-14) from beyond the arc. UA was also very good at the charity stripe, knocking down 16-of-19 (84.2 percent) attempts.
For Arkansas players scored in double figures, led by Williams' 14 points and eight boards. Lyndsay Harris added 13 points in her final game as a Razorback. Sarah Watkins and C'eira Ricketts each had 10.
After allowing the Razorbacks to score the first four points of the game, the Aggies scored the next nine and ripped off a 13-2 run to claim an early 13-6 lead. Alexia Standish helped A&M get off and running with back-to-back threes to key the early scoring flurry.
But the Hogs came right back, tightening it up on defense and forcing bad shot after bad shot by A&M. That allowed Arkansas to go on 9-0 run of its own to go up by two, 15-13.
The two teams went back in forth for a long stretch before the Ags got hot in the final minutes of the first, riding Skylar Collins, Bone and Elonu to a 27-20 halftime lead.
A&M built its largest lead in the opening minutes of the second half, scoring nine straight once again to jump on top by 14, 36-22. But the Razorbacks never went away and continued to fight throughout the night.
Prior to Blair's designed play to get Carter to the line in the final minute of the game, Harris gave UA its first lead of the half with a leaning, one-handed runner as the shot clock expired. That put the Razorbacks on top, 59-58.
The rest, as they say, is history. Carter's drive to the basket and made free throws, one key defensive stand and one big-time rebound later, and the Ags are moving on to the round of 16 … escaping the tough-minded and extremely athletic Razorbacks by the skin of their teeth.
The time of Sunday's meeting between A&M and Maryland has yet to be determined. If the Aggies can get past the Terps, there is a chance that they could see top-seeded Notre Dame in a rematch of the 2011 national title game.
Locker Room Chat with Adaora Elonu
On making it through to the Sweet 16…
“It feels really good. I’m just glad we were able to play on our home floor and to get the win is just a bonus. We got it together at the end and pulled through, but we let them come back and retake the lead after we lost our lead. We did a good job of keeping our composure and fighting through and playing defense on the last play. We did an awesome job of pulling together and it feels great to win my last game here at Reed Arena.”On playing for Coach Schaefer in his last game at Reed Arena…
“I never thought about it that way, but what a better way to end his last game here than on a defensive play. I know it was great for him and he was overcome with emotion. I was glad the team was able to get the win for him.”On her stellar performance tonight…
“The coaches said that it was probably going to turn out to be an inside game because they switch a lot and we need to take advantage of the mismatches. I just took the shots that were given to me. My teammates did a good job of finding me, I had a lot of easy baskets thanks to them. They just did a great job of finding me and I did an okay job of making my shots. I missed a lot of bunnies but we got the win which is all that counts.”On the play off the bench…
“That was one of the keys from Coach Blair, that the bench needs to make a statement and step up in this game, and I think they did a phenomenal job. We really needed them tonight and they step up, especially with Tyra (White) and Sydney (Carter) and Kelsey (Bone) not really doing what they normally do. I think the bench did a great job.”On staying calm down the stretch…
“Thank goodness the huddle was pretty calm. We had a confidence about us that we weren’t going to let this game slip away and I think that was really important, just installing that confidence within the team. We went out there and kept our composure. The coaches did a really good job, but while the lead was slipping away, it was unfortunate for us because we knew that it was something that we let happen so we had to go back and get that win for the team and for the fans. We just dug deep and we pulled through.”On Sydney Carter’s clutch free throws in the final minute of play…
“She’s been missing her free throws, but she’s been working at it and the coaches feel confident in her. She knocked down the shots and she did the same thing against Iowa State when we played them here. We’re definitely confident when she has the ball in her hands at the free throw line.”On the keys to keeping this post-season run alive…
“Getting better on defense, getting better on offense and just working on our game all the way around. We’re going to play a tough team in Maryland and we know that we have to play really smart, really focused and play like an experienced team as defending national champions. We are really excited that we’ve gotten to the Sweet 16 again, but we need to stay focused in the next round.”Texas A&M post-game quotes
Head Coach Gary BlairOpening statement:
"Great ball game, great atmosphere. 6100 fans, we had a great student crowd that came out and kept us in it. When you’re playing so late at night, y’all already missed deadline anyway. We had a 14-point lead. We weren’t turning the ball over, we were just missing the easy shots. And then they got on a roll, started hitting some tough shots, started taking it to rack. Then the dagger for them was Harris throwing that running one hander in. But wouldn’t you want to have Harris shooting the ball instead of anybody else ball because that’s their best shooter. Carter did a great job of taking it to the hole and make a truck collision and getting her to the free throw line. I was never so confident in my life on what we wanted to do. But I had to use my timeouts before and after to make sure we set up our defense. The last play of the game, when they came down and went into their 1-4 with the high post screen, we’ve worked on that all week. It was defended as well as we could. The person they had shoot the ball I don’t think was the person they really wanted to, but we defended everything really well. Williams just missed a pretty easy shot, but it was contested well and Tyra did a great job of getting the rebound and we missed the second free throw on purpose to take a second off of the clock, which we did. Great ball game for the fans. It was a great way to end the year at Reed Arena, on a positive note. It was a great way for Coach Schaefer to coach his last game here in Reed Arena. Our first game we won was against Arkansas-Little Rock back in ’03-’04. And now we won this one against Arkansas. And I believe we started a great rivalry between these two schools, and a good friendly one. This isn’t Texas and A&M. This is Arkansas, and I’m paying taxes in both states. We made it a little tough on us, but I think Arkansas had a lot to do with that with how hard they played and how well they played down the stretch and how well they shot the free throws."
If we would’ve told you before the game that Tyra White would have two shots and eight turnovers, do you think that you would have won the game?
"At halftime Bone was two for eight, Tyra hadn’t taken a shot and had six turnovers. Carter hadn’t made a shot, and I said, 'We’re up by seven and should’ve been up by 11 or 13.' I said how in the heck, but that’s how deep this team is in production. We had no problem putting Collins in because White wasn’t rebounding early, and she didn’t do a thing until the second half. Carter was struggling a little so we just left Collins in there and kept rotating Carter and them out. Lexi gave us the jump-start with the two big threes that we had to have and then they started finding her. Our bench, we would not have won this game without Carla or Pratcher or Collins. You have to have a good bench, and there’s always a new storyline or a new star stepping up and those three were probably the three most important people in the ball game."
Talk about the mindset to leave White in there basically the entire second half, despite her struggles.
"White was playing well in the second half. She missed two shots, but other than that she was playing defense, she was rebounding. You go with sometimes who brought you to the dance. Who’s a hot shooter? Skylar is not Jeremy Lin. Look what Carter did. Did anybody say take Carter out also? She was 0-4. But look what Ricketts did against her, Ricketts was 3-13. She did a great job on her. Sometimes you have to leave somebody in because the team is comfortable with what’s going on. It’s not all about points, it’s about when you need somebody. When I’m going down to the wire, it’s going to be White and Carter on the floor almost for sure in that situation."
In a game where you’re not making your shots around the basket but you have more focus at the free throw line. Did
that percentage counteract that a little for you?
"I told Carter, one of the keys on the board, number 4, was rebounds, turnovers, free throws and bunny shots. We missed the bunny shots in the first half; we missed the bunny shots in the second half. We got the rebounds in the first half, we were plus seven. Free throws, we were good the whole day. But the bunny shots normally are driving layups and we’re missing. This time on driving layups we got fouled and made the free throws. But our post players just got a little bit nervous; we missed a bunch of stuff. Bone tried to shoot a couple 20-footers and she knows better than that. But one of the worst things was when the girl Bone was guarding drills one the play before. So what do you want to do, you want to try to answer. We had a little conversation after that. One of the most important passes she made in the second half, she was wide open, thought about taking it, and passed it over and I think we scored on that play."
Coach Collen said that when the shot that Harris put up actually went in, part of him felt that it could’ve been the Razorback’s night. What was going through your mind and what did you think about how your girls responded?
"I guarantee you I thought that was the shot that did us in right there. But our kids have come back. We did this against USC in a 71-70 game. We led just about the whole game against USC and they came down and hit a shot and we came down and Carter hit a shot to win the ball game. These kids don’t quit, particularly the seniors. They’ve been through so much. But give Harris credit, she made a tough running one-hander. Anyone else would’ve threw it, she shot it. A good shooter can get it up anywhere, it’s like a quarterback throwing the ball that way underneath, he can still complete the pass. Harris is a great player; she turned it on the second half and hit some big shots. Williams kept them in the game in the first half just like Collins kept us in the game the first half. So two unsung people get the job done to make it better for the starters in the second half. Harris is a very good player and that’s the way you’re supposed to leave with Harris and Ricketts and Daniels."
Talk about those last eight minutes of the game.
"I think we were up 14 if I’m not mistaken, and all of a sudden they just started hitting shots. The zone really bothered them when we went to it. Then all of a sudden we went out of it for a while and they just made a couple of shots. They got on the offense boards in the second half. One time they just jumped flat over Carter. It wasn’t an over the back call, Watkins or Williams just went in and made the play. They just got aggressive and went after it and that’s typical SEC ball. If you shoot it, you go fetch it, they’re very good at that. This is one of the best ball clubs we’ve played all year. The game looked ugly in the first half due to our 12 turnovers, but other than that I thought we played a pretty good ball game and I thought Arkansas was solid all game. I said if we could hold them to 35 percent, I thought we could win the game because I thought we could score enough inside, and we had enough inside shots, but we missed the shots. But give them credit, because they were contesting really well."
Did you think you could catch them flat-footed with that inbounds play to get the ball down the floor?
"No, we were trying. That 2-2-1, normally you just go a 2-1-2 against it. But we were wasting 10 seconds every time. We had to try something. I had called it a couple other times and my 5 player had forgotten to get into a 1-4. We called that thing twice when Carla was in there and she never got there. We tried to break it and get that thing going a little faster. That’s not a press where they’re trying to steal the ball; they’re trying to take time off of our zone offense, which they were very effective at. By the way, the zone offense in the second half when we ran that triple post and Carter and Pratcher made those two passes across to Elonu and Gilbert, those were our two best offensive plays of the day. It was open all night but we just couldn’t see it. We finally were effective at running those two plays and got the lob across."
Talk about how satisfying it is to get to the Sweet 16?
"Homer, this was more pressure than the National Championship game. You’re in Arkansas for 10 years. I’ve got a lot of friends and family. This was more pressure on me than winning the National Championship. Thanking the people who made it possible to host the first and second round. They made it possible; I didn’t want to let them down. This was not the matchup I was looking forward to, playing Arkansas. I would’ve rather had wanted to play Nebraska in the six hole. And I’m sure Tom would’ve rather had played in Little Rock in front of a sellout. But this is the NCAA doing a storyline game like they did with Louisville and Maryland, like they did with Kansas and Nebraska. They don’t do that in the men’s side. They put you where you belong. We’re trying to generate crowd and atmosphere and trying to get TV type matchups. But this is the most pressure I’ve had personally. I tried to not let it affect the team. It was pressure on Vic too because this was going to be his last game he coached here. He wanted to go out a winner and he did. Now we’re going to Maryland, we feel good about our matchup, we feel good about playing Maryland. They’re going to be very similar to us, and we’re looking forward to playing them. We’re both defending National Champions. In one year or not, we both have won it."
Talk a little bit about Elonu and how she stepped up.
"She was hitting their mid-range shot, she’s probably the best mid-range shooter that I’ve had here to play the four position. When she just catches and goes straight up. She made a tough layup early in the ball game. I think she posted up and turned around and made a left-hander or something. I thought that was tough shot and it gave her confidence. Late in the game when she missed the easy one, we can all do that. Elonu, she knows she did not play well at Baylor. She knew she needed to step up and make a difference. This is why I could not use Gilbert and Bone together, which I planned on doing. And put Assarian in if Watkins had gone off enough on us to let those two have a WWF bash, they would’ve been great against each other. Elonu was solid, making great decisions. Only thing she did wrong, she missed a couple of layups at the end. Other than that, it was one of her best ball games under pressure that she’s played. What a great kid. Again, I would like to thank our administration. I’d like to thank our committees, I’d like to thank the media coverage; it’s been excellent. And folks, we’re big time. I’d like to thank everybody, the little lady over there from Cal who ran the thing; I hope she’ll come back. We can put on a show and we can host championships better than any school around. We know how to host championships, and we’ve done a great job and we’re going to a better job when we’re back here next year.
Guard Sydney Carter
As a senior in Reed Arena, last moments, was there any doubt you weren’t going to make both of those?
"Not at all. I knew that coach Blair and coach Schaefer definitely wanted me to get to the line because they trust me at the line and those are like layups for me. I have to credit Bone; she knew she was going to me the whole time. And I don’t think she ever doubted who she was going to pass the ball to. And that was a flashback to the Iowa State game that we had here and I wanted to get to the basket and like coach said, make a truck collision. I knew I had to get to the line because I had the previous four that I had already shot."
Coaches have confidence in your free throws, but also that your defense is going to come through. Does that always come true?
"I think so, I think that coach Schaefer always tells everyone that he’s going to win with me or get fired with me. I take a lot of pride in that statement because I really take pride in defense and making people uncomfortable when I’m guarding the ball. I know that every single play I’m going to be involved. I’m going to have the ball and either I need to make a deny - I’m always going to be involved. Every play down the part I’m sure that I’m doing my job on the defensive end to ensure that my team can trust me on the defense end to get a stop like we did on the last play."
You were in tight games in the NCAA tournament last year, did that help you out tonight?
"It’s definitely the experience and the chemistry. We had so many games last year where we were in tight spots. And it’s important for us to rely on each other and have trust in each other. If you don’t have that trust, you’re not going to come out on top in games like that. We’re seniors, we’ve been through wars and this is just another one that came our way and we answered the call.
Guard Skylar Collins
Is this a good example that if one of your players has an off night that y’all have others who can chip in?
"Yes, definitely. Tyra and Carter and Bone struggled from the field a little bit tonight. And so you have players like Pratcher, Carla and myself coming off the bench and just kind of making up for their missed shots or whatever they were struggling with. I think a lot of that just comes from the defensive end and when we came in the game to just get stops and get going in transition. I think those two other players did a great job coming off the bench and just stepped up for this team."
You looked pretty calm out there for such a big game, were you really that calm? Can you talk about your play in the 8 minutes you came in and made 8 points?
"I guess I was calm. I just came in focused. I knew we were in a tight spot when I came into the game. We kind of let them come back in the game at that point. So I just came in and took the shots that the defense gave me and tried to get stops on the other end and did what I had to do for this team."
Guard-Forward Tyra White
On Aggies advancing despite her off night:
“It’s a huge win for us. Nobody thought we’d make it past the second round. It was rough, but a win is a win, and we’ll take it.”
On her six first-half turnovers and eight for the game:
“It was one of those nights. I felt like I was trying to do too much on offense. That’s how it went. I’ve just got to cut them off for the next game.”
On getting the rebound on Arkansas’ missed shot with 5 seconds left:
“It was just tipped up, so I wanted to grab it. I didn’t really look at the seconds. I just knew I had to get it.”
On if it was a sense of relief after she grabbed the rebound:
“Yes. Very much.”
On this team wanting to do more than people expect:
“This was a great test game for us. We just have to get back in the film room, watch film and get prepared for Maryland.”
On Adaora Elonu and Skylar Collins saving the day for the Aggies:
“They were real huge. Skylar came in when I wasn’t hitting my shots. She came in and did a good job. Adaora did an excellent job on the boards and getting the easy buckets for us. That was huge for us.”
Forward Adaora Elonu
Could you talk about your start, you looked a lot different than you did Saturday night?
We were just reading what they were doing on defense. The coaches did a good job getting us prepared setting ball screens and rolling because they switch a lot. We tried to get our advantage once we set the screen for the post to post up on the guard. I think Kelsey and everyone else on the team did a good job of finding mismatches and we did a good job of executing."
You were in tight games in the NCAA tournament last year, did that help you out tonight?
"Yeah and I think the fact that we’re seniors and we built our chemistry later on in the season. I think it definitely helped, that the experience that we have definitely helped us with the last play where we switched for the first time and she switched off and had a great contest on No. 24. I definitely think last year’s NCAA tournament helped us."
Center Kelsey Bone
On missing seven shots in the paint and going 3-for-12 from the field:
“Oh, man, there was just a lid on the basket. But you know the beauty of this team is we have people who come off the bench. Skylar Collins came in and hit some big shots to keep us in the game. Alexia [Standish] hit two big threes, just right when we needed them. You couldn’t have told me that if Sydney [Carter], Tyra [White] and myself went 4-for-18 that we’d still get a win. But Adaora played the game of her life. Other people just stepped up tonight, and that’s what it was about.”
On if the Aggies ever had any doubts as Arkansas was rallying from 14 points down:
“We just trust in our defense. I think we work so hard. This game, this win, was for our seniors. This win was for Coach [Vic] Schaefer. This is his last game here with us. We just kept our composure. The good thing about it is we’ve seen that before. We kind of channeled back to Iowa State, and we just kept trucking. We got the big stop at the end, and we rebounded the ball.”
On Arkansas’ possession that resulted in a miss with five seconds left:
“We were expecting [C’eira]Ricketts to kind of try to take the ball. [Quistelle] Williams got loose. She missed the shot, and Tyra [White] came out of nowhere and grabbed a huge rebound and got fouled. I think that’s the beauty of it is Tyra’s shot wasn’t falling, my shot wasn’t falling, but we still found other ways to help this team get this win tonight besides just scoring.”
On lack of a celebration at the end of the game:
“We don’t think anybody expected us to win this game but us. That was the thing: We were supposed to win that game in our minds. So no, there wasn’t a big celebration, because in our minds that was what we were supposed to do.”
Arkansas post-game quotes
Head Coach Tom CollenOpening Statement:
“You guys were there and watched the game. I just think it was a great game. I hope people all across the country got a chance to watch the last six to eight minutes and saw us make the run that we did. I can’t say enough about these kids. This senior class in particular took a chance on me five years ago when Arkansas hadn’t been to the NCAA tournament for four years. They were from everywhere: Mississippi, Kentucky, and Alabama. They came and they took a chance. They battled really hard. We had a great season. We’re disappointed that we lost this game because we know we had a chance, but we had a great season. We’re going to keep our heads up. I don’t think I have ever had a group of kids, in my fourteen years as a head coach, or a group of seniors that I’ve been through so much with in terms of the growing pains and hard work that we had to put in in order to get to where we were at and gain the level of respectability that we always wanted the University of Arkansas to get back. They accomplished that. Win or lose tonight, they would have accomplished that. I told them there’s very few senior classes that go out not on a loss. Whoever won the national championship, that’s the only one. They need to hold their heads high and be proud of what they did. It was just an exciting game, and I am proud of them.”
On the last play of the game:
“It didn’t turn out to be quite the look that we wanted. We thought the look was going to be there and it wasn’t, but we ended up getting the look anyway. The last three of four times we had run that play, we really tried to ram C’eira Ricketts down the lane on them. Every single time we had done that, she made something good happen, either kick it out or shoot a layup. The one thing we noticed was every time she did that, they were just hanging on for dear life and everybody was flowing towards her. I really felt like they were going to do everything in their power to stop her. The guard kept fighting over the top and going with her and chasing her. All night long that pop-action was there. It wasn’t one of my seniors, but it was a kid that played great two nights ago and played great again tonight. I rolled the dice on it. I felt like it was going to be a good, clean look. The guard, to her credit, started to go with Ricketts. When Ricketts stopped and turned, she came back to ‘Q’ [Quistelle Williams]. She contested it. ‘Q’ gave it up. She probably could have contested it, but she gave it up. They flowed back to C’eira, and C’eira came back to her and we got the look. Probably as the clock was ticking, I was thinking ‘do I need to call it?’ We ended up getting a pretty clean look at the basket, but it didn’t go down. It was with a kid who has played fantastic the last two games. It’s always easy to second-guess yourself and look back and think maybe I should have called this or that play or gotten it to a senior. I just felt like it was something that was going to be there for us.”
On Lyndsay’s shot and having things go their way:
“I don’t think there’s any credit. They missed a lot of shots for us. They are a team that is very sporadic offensively like us. They play defense every single night. On the days that they are making shots, they score and win. On the days they don’t, they lose. We switched to a 3-2 zone that we haven’t practiced or played for a month, but we felt like it was the right alignment for what they were doing. We ran a 2-3 zone but were small. They kept banging us on the backside. They hit us two or three times on that. We decided to go to a zone that matched big-on-big. We took a chance, and when we did that, we took that away from them and they were really ineffective. They got some looks, but I don’t think they were great rhythm looks. I thought it was a good move on the part of my defensive coordinator. They still made the play that they had to make there at the end. Who would have guessed that they would have put it in her hands with that much time on the clock and rammed it right at us. They know their kids, and he knew exactly what he wanted to get out of it. It took us a little bit off guard, so they go to the free throw line and that was the game.”
On Texas A&M’s home-court advantage:
“It’s hard to put a number on it. Honestly, we’ve been a team that hasn’t necessarily played great basketball at home, and we don’t get good crowds. The last three years when we went on the road in the SEC to places like Tennessee, Kentucky, Georgia, and South Carolina, we had elevated our game and played better In front of an opposing crowd than we played in from of our crowd at home at times. It’s hard to put a number on it. I don’t think there’s any question, if you asked me would I have played a second-round game to go to the Sweet Sixteen against just as good of an opponent but on a neutral floor, I would say absolutely. It’s tough coming down here. We’ve worked hard to try to build the reputation of this program, and had a great season. When you can get into a tussle like this with the defending national champion on national TV, I think we probably gained some respect from some people out there. Maybe now they realize we were a little bit better basketball team that maybe deserved a little more recognition as the season was going on in the polls.”
On what Lyndsay has meant to the program:
“She took a chance on us over Auburn and Alabama. She started from day one. This is a kid that has never made all-conference. I don’t know how many points she was going to end up with, 1,400-1,500 points. She is one of our best three-point shooters of all time. She has been a team captain for three years. Somehow she’s just always been left out because of a C’eira Ricketts or a Sarah Watkins, but in my mind, she is an all-conference kind of kid. She went down last year and blew out her knee, and we talked about redshirting her. She wanted no part of it. She was going to go out with this senior class and saw this as her opportunity. She’s just a tough, tough kid and has battled back. We didn’t start her at the beginning of the year, but we put her back in the starting lineup. It took us a couple of games and that’s when we went on a roll and won eight straight. She’s a great kid, and I love her like my own daughter. This whole senior class, I love all five of them to death.“
On Adaora Elonu’s play:
“She knocked down shots. I don’t think we intentionally ignored her. We were well aware of her talents. She beat us a little bit of everywhere. She beat us on the low block. She beat us knocking down some face up shots. She beat us on dump passes and offensive rebounds. I try to stay out of the defensive side of the ball a little bit because I don’t like to get into fights with my wife. That was a name that got brought up. She was very concerned with her because we normally switch a ball screen. She was worried about her ability to post up and get garbage points. She’s a kid that gets a little over-looked, but she’s an all-conference kid. She has had a great career here.”
On 19-5 run at the end:
“Our timeouts have been interesting this year. My defensive coordinator is pretty competitive and pretty fiery. She doesn’t accept mistakes very well at all. She always leads into the timeouts. She’s usually in there lighting them up pretty good, making corrections and making it known that we can’t continue to make mistakes. By the time I get in there, I know they have probably been blistered up in most occasions. By nature, I probably err on being more positive than anything else. During the course of these four seniors’ careers, I can tell you I have tried to light them up before. When I light them up, they go south on me. When I get into timeouts with them, besides talking about offensive execution, it is about talking about belief in themselves that we can do this, we’ve been knocked down before. We draw on our memories that we’ve had. Make sure that they look me in the eye and believe that they can do it. Nine time out of 10, they went out and did what they did tonight. That’s why it’s so heartbreaking for me, that they came back and did it again, but just fell one short. They worked so hard to do that.”
Guard Lyndsay Harris
On battling back to make it a close game:
“I’m very proud of my team. We’ve been through a lot, and there have been times where we didn’t think we were going to win. I think the one thing we have been able to do this year is stress to everybody not to ever give up. We’ve been in that situation so many times, and when you’re in that situation to the defending national champions and to still battle back the way we did, I couldn’t ask for anything more from anybody on that team.”
On her shot to take the one-point lead with the shot clock running down:
“That was a terrible look. I really just threw it up there hoping it would hit the rim and that we would be in position to get the offensive rebound. Luckily, it went it.”
On satisfaction of leading Arkansas back to NCAA tournament:
“It feels good. Like coach said I’m from Alabama. When I was recruited by Arkansas, I didn’t know anything about the state. My AAU coaches told me that all I had to do was come on my visit and I would commit here after one visit, and I didn’t visit any other schools. I just needed confirmation to see the campus. Ever since I’ve been here, I felt like Arkansas was the place for me. Once basketball started and I saw the loving community and the other seniors that came and how hard we worked from day one, it’s like everything just fell into place. It feels so good to be walking out the way we did. We never planned to get as far as we did this year or to break the records we broke, but we did it. After all we have been through, to finally get it our senior year feels great.”
On being down and coming back to take the lead late in the game:
“Honestly, those last few minutes I never thought we were going to lose that game. It took me back to the Tennessee game.The crowd was in it for Texas A&M and things were going right for them, but things were still going right for us. I just kept telling the team, ‘y’all we’re going to win this game.’ I never wanted them to think that we didn’t have a chance. I felt that until the time the buzzer, we had the chance to win that game. Like I said before, I’m just really proud of the run we made at the end, not giving up, and competing with the team that won the national championship last year.”
Guard C'eira Ricketts
On the last shot for Arkansas:
“We set up a drive, but we knew that they were going to cut off my drive and deny Lyndsay [Harris]. But I knew I could I draw all the defenders to me, so one of my posts is going to be open. We got the shot we wanted, but it didn’t fall for us. We couldn’t ask for a better look than what we got.”
On key to the 14-point comeback:
“Just staying together and being positive, believing in each other. We’ve been in this situation all through the season, and we knew we could do it as long as we stayed together and get stops. That’s what we did.”
On the season:
“It was a great season. We got a couple of big wins in the season. We made it here [to the NCAA Tournament]. We hadn’t been here in a long time. It’s a lot of great moments this season. I’m glad that we were able to accomplish some of these things we did while I was here, and I hope the next group can do the same.”
On establishing a rivalry with A&M:
“I think it’s going to be a battle between us two once they come to the SEC.”
Forward Quistelle Williams
On the final play for Arkansas:
“It was designed for C’eira to drive and see if she could get an open look and then kick it out to me. She drove and kicked it out. I had a look, and then I kicked it back out. She drove and then kicked it to me. I shorted it a little bit and it just didn’t fall. It should have gone in.”
Forward Sarah Watkins
On Arkansas’ slow start from the field:
“We struggled a lot this season, shooting percentage. We really used our defense to drive our offense. Shots weren’t falling. Once you get in a rut, you’ve just got to get yourself out of it.”
On how they managed to get out of shooting slump:
“I think getting better looks, slowing down. It all once again comes from defense and working hard.”
On what point they thought they were going to win after coming back from 14 down:
“I think the momentum swung when we started coming back, and we were down by maybe six. I think it was 55-49. I think the momentum might have changed right then, like we knew that we were on a little bit of a run, and we could pull this thing out.”
On establishing a rivalry with A&M:
“Really any team in the SEC is a rivalry. Every game is going to be a battle. I don’t think A&M is going to be any different once they get there.”
On Arkansas’ season:
“Seniors did a great job coming in and building this program back up, like Coach said in the locker room after the game. I just think we need to take this and build on it every year. You don’t ever want to end a season with a loss, but it’s something you’ve got to look forward to to next year, being in the tournament and hopefully getting farther than the time you did last year.”
Post-game notes
* For the 17th 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 12-5 with this starting lineup.* Texas A&M improves to 3-20 in the all-time series with Arkansas.
* The Aggies improves to 17-7 all-time in NCAA postseason play in their ninth all-time appearance. In addition, they have won eight straight NCAA Tournament games.
* A&M is 5-2 all-time in the NCAA Second Round and is 2-1 all-time against a No. 6 seed.
* The Aggies are 10-6 on national TV this season.
* The Aggies are 20-2 when leading at the half.
* Texas A&M head coach Gary Blair is now 15-5 at A&M and 29-16 in his career in NCAA Tournament games.
* Texas A&M shot a season-best 85 percent from the foul stripe (when attempting 20 more) as they made 17 of 20 attempts.
* In the first half, A&M shot 46 percent from the floor and held Albany to just 32 percent.
* With two blocked shots, Elonu moved into the eighth place on the all-time list with 86 blocks.
* With an NCAA Tournament career-best six assists, Adrienne Pratcher passed over 100 assists this season for the first time in her career.
* Elonu scored in double figures for the 22nd time this season and her 23 points were also an NCAA Tournament best.
* Skylar Collins added an NCAA Tournament career-best 8 points and three rebounds in just 8 minutes of action.
* Elonu set an A&M record for most games played in a career with her 140th contest today.
* Blair heads to his ninth Sweet Sixteen appearance and 29th NCAA Tournament game in his head coaching career.
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