Texas A&M tops Hartford

• By JOSEPH SCHIEFELBEIN
• Advocate sportswriter
• Published: Mar 25, 2008 - UPDATED: 6:35 a.m.

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Though NCAA women’s basketball tournament success is rather new to Texas A&M, the Aggies played like old hands Monday night, winning with what they called a business-like approach and taking little time to celebrate.

Now, A&M is poised to go further than the program has ever gone.

A strong dose of versatile forward Danielle Gant blended with tough defense led A&M over Hartford 63-39 in a second-round game of the Oklahoma City, Okla., region, played at LSU’s Pete Maravich Assembly Center.

Gant had 21 points, on 9-for-11 shooting, while Shreveport native Morenike Atunrase, the Big 12’s top sixth man, added 13 points for A&M.

“Danielle Gant never takes a bad shot,” A&M coach Gary Blair said. “… I love Danielle Gant because of how hard she plays, and she makes the rest of us play that hard.”

Eighth-ranked A&M (28-7), seeded second in the region, never trailed in its first two NCAA tournament games, backing up both the highest seeding and best ranking in school history.

“We have grown. … We just expect to win big games,” Atunrase said. “We just go out and try to play like a No. 2 seed.”

The Aggies, who were 9-19 and 11th in the Big 12 five years ago in Blair’s first season (2003-04), are headed to just the second Sweet 16 appearance in school history. The only other came in 1994.

A&M will play in Oklahoma City on Sunday against either No. 3 seed Duke (24-9) or No. 6 seed Arizona State (22-10). Those teams play tonight in College Park, Md.

“It was a very business-like game for us,” said Blair, a 500-game winner who has taken three programs (Stephen F. Austin, Arkansas and now A&M) to the Sweet 16.

Danielle Hood had 13 points and nine rebounds and Erica Beverly nine points and 10 rebounds for 10th-seeded Hartford (28-6), which set a school record for wins but had a 10-game winning streak halted.

Hartford had its second-lowest point total of the season, the Hawks’ fewest points since December.

“Obviously, we ran into a defensive buzz-saw,” Hartford coach Jennifer Rizzotti said. “The pressure Texas A&M put on us was unlike we’ve seen and probably unlike anything we’d be able to prepare for, even if we had a week. … They were phenomenal.”