Texas Tech coach Kristy Curry is convinced there's something about her team that brings out the best in Texas A&M's Danielle Adams.
''We seem to really struggle matchup-wise against her,'' Curry said. ''Danielle always seems to have a good night (against us).''
Adams scored 20 of her 30 points in the first half and had a career-high-tying 13 rebounds to lead No. 5 Texas A&M to an 84-60 win over Texas Tech on Tuesday night. The senior has scored 56 points in A&M's two meetings with the Lady Raiders this season and notched her only career triple-double against them last season.
She isn't sure why she has had so much success against Texas Tech.
''There's no particular team that I feel like I can do more against,'' she said. ''I just go out and play my game.''
Texas A&M (23-3, 11-2 Big 12) was up by eight at halftime and used a 16-4 run to open the second half and stretch the lead to 52-32 with about 15 minutes left. Sydney Colson and Adams both made 3-pointers and had three-point plays in that stretch to build the big lead.
Texas Tech had trouble dealing with the physical play of Adams, who had 10 rebounds to go with her 20 points at halftime despite near constant double teams when she got the ball down low. Adams also made 2 of 3 3-pointers.
''They don't have that dominant defensive post player that can stop her,'' Texas A&M coach Gary Blair said. ''Their post players are very good offensively but Danielle can go inside-outside. How many post players in this league can do that?''
The loss breaks a three-game winning streak for Texas Tech (19-8, 6-7), who beat then-No. 1 Baylor on Saturday. Chynna Brown had 15 points and Teena Wickett added 11 for the Lady Raiders.
Curry thinks her team may have gotten too amped up after their win over the Bears.
''We've got to mature and grow to the point where what we did last week can't look big to us,'' she said. ''We've got to learn to be more consistent with our maturity and learn what we have to do night in and night out. We've got to put this one behind us. We didn't seem to put the last one behind us very well.''
Texas Tech leading scorer Kierra Mallard struggled on Tuesday, finishing with just four points on 1-of-5 shooting. Blair, a graduate of Texas Tech, approached Mallard after the game for a bit of encouragement.
''I told her that she's still the best player on that team,'' he said. ''Then I asked her if she was ready to lead the team to the NCAA tournament.''
Adams, who leads the Big 12 in scoring and is second in rebounding, got her first career first-half double-double in the win and Tyra White added 20 points for Texas A&M.
The 24-point loss is Texas Tech's most lopsided defeat of the season. The Lady Raiders' second-worst loss this season also came against Texas A&M, 79-65 on Feb. 5.
The Lady Raiders didn't look much like the team that ended Baylor's 21-game winning streak three days earlier. In that game, they held the Bears to a season-low 25.9 percent shooting and their fewest points of the season.
On Tuesday they allowed the Aggies to shoot better than 55 percent and Texas A&M's 84 points were the most they've allowed all season. Texas A&M was also helped by a season-high 89.5 percent free throw shooting (17 of 19).
''We knew they were going to come in fired up after beating the No. 1 team in the nation,'' Adams said. ''We just had to play tremendous defense.''
The game was tied at 16-all midway through the first half before Texas A&M used a 15-4 run to take a 31-20 about three minutes before halftime. Texas Tech scored eight straight points after that to cut the advantage to 31-28 two minutes later.
Colson, who finished with 10 points, five assists and three steals, made a pair of free throws and Adams had a 3-point play in the last minute of the half to take a 36-28 lead into halftime.
