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Cyclone women upset Aggies
Photos: A&M-Iowa State slideshow | Croome: Zone proves lethal against A&M again
Notebook: A look behind the A&M-ISU game | Roundup: Oklahoma advances to final

By ROBERT CESSNA
Eagle Sports Writer

OKLAHOMA CITY - The Iowa State Cyclones painfully reminded the Texas A&M women's basketball team how it felt to lose in the NCAA Tournament last season.

Tournament-savvy Iowa State held A&M to only one basket in the final 6 minutes and beat the Aggies 57-51 in the Big 12 Championship semifinals Thursday night at the Cox Convention Center.

Iowa State (25-7) advances to play Oklahoma (25-4) in Saturday's title game for the Big 12's automatic NCAA Tournament berth. Oklahoma advanced with a 78-64 victory over Baylor.

The next action for the 13th-ranked Aggies will be the NCAA Tournament. The NCAA will announce the 64-team Tournament field Monday night.

A&M (24-6) had earned the league's No. 1 seed and won its first Big 12 regular-season title, sharing it with No. 2 seed Oklahoma. But the Aggies were denied their first appearance in the Big 12 tournament final despite carrying the top seed.

"I'm really going to miss not playing Saturday, because we wanted to make that next step," A&M head coach Gary Blair said. "This is a step where we got off the bus last year."

A&M earned the school's first Big 12 quarterfinal victory last season, then dropped a 53-52 thriller to 10th-ranked Baylor in the semifinals.

This time, the Aggies didn't have a chance to win at the end. They missed eight straight shots and had two turnovers after tying the game at 47 on a short jumper by Patrice Reado with 6:05 left.

ISU went inside to win the game after loosening up A&M's defense by hitting 10 of its first 20 3-pointers. The Cyclones scored on four straight possessions - including three layups - to take a 55-48 lead with 2:54 left.

ISU forward Toccara Ross capped the spurt by beating A&M's Danielle Gant, taking a perfect lob pass from Alison Lacey.

"[That was] a great back cut, probably the nicest play of the night," ISU head coach Bill Fennelly said. "You never know when someone breaks the game open, but that was a great play."

Enlarge photo

Buy this photo Eagle Photo/Butch Ireland A&M's A'Quonesia Franklin tries to throw a pass over Iowa State's Megan Ronhovde on Thursday.

ISU pulled away despite having senior point guard Lyndsey Medders on the bench with four fouls. Medders hit a game-tying 3-pointer Wednesday with 1.7 seconds left in regulation to force overtime en route to a season-high 27 points as ISU rallied for a 79-76 victory over Nebraska in the quarterfinals.

Medders had only eight points with six turnovers against A&M, but ISU still won its eighth straight, a winning streak that started with a 61-54 victory over A&M on Feb. 14 when the Cyclones outscored A&M 14-1 down the stretch.

ISU, which was in danger of not making the NCAA Tournament before its current winning streak, will play in its fourth Big 12 Championship final and is only the second No. 5 seed to reach the title game.

ISU had a balanced attack against A&M with Lacey and Heather Ezell the lone players in double figures, each scoring 11.

The Cyclones outshot the Aggies from the field, with five different players hitting 3-pointers. ISU shot 46 percent from the floor compared to A&M's 36.

ISU also had the edge at the free-throw line, hitting 5 of 6 to A&M's 3 of 8. The Cyclones also outrebounded the Aggies 34-33.

While ISU had 19 turnovers to A&M's 14, the Aggies gained only three points off that edge, scoring 17 points off turnovers to the Cyclone's 14.

The numbers added up to one thing, and it wasn't good for A&M.

"If a team shoots 46 percent, 39 [on 3-pointers] and 83 from the line, and we shoot 36, 33 and 37 [and] get outrebounded by one and we only win the turnover battle by five, even sports writers can figure that out," Blair said. "The best team won."

A&M, which had a five-game winning streak snapped, led throughout the first 7 minutes, not making a turnover.

A&M's offense eventually bogged down against ISU's zone defense, and point guard A'Quonesia Franklin picked up two fouls in the first 10 minutes. She didn't score in the first half.

ISU wiped out a 23-19 A&M lead by hitting three 3-pointers for a 28-25 halftime advantage.

The Aggies were 1-of-11 shooting with four turnovers in the first half's final 7 minutes.

"We got outplayed, and a lot of it was the last 4 minutes of the first half," Blair said.

A&M failed to take advantage of its size inside, missing eight shots inside the lane in the first half. A&M also didn't have a transition basket in the game.

Shooting guard Takia Starks was the only starter who shot well, hitting 6 of 13 for a game-high 15 points and playing the entire game. Gant came off the bench for nine points and eight rebounds.

A&M starting forward Reado and starting center La Toya Micheaux combined for seven rebounds and 11 points, hitting only 5 of 14 shots. Micheaux was 1 of 5 from the free-throw line.

"We're going to regroup," Blair said. "We're going to look ourselves in the mirror, and the head coach will look in the mirror first and figure out how to teach this game a little bit better, how we can play a little bit better and how we can play and be a little bit smarter as we play."

A&M, expected to be a fourth seed in the NCAA Tournament, will try to erase last season's first-round loss to 11th-seeded Texas Christian, when the Aggies were seeded sixth.

"And I guarantee you, we will make it past the first round this year," Blair said.