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Aggies beat Cyclones 68-44

Jan 14, 2010 - 4:05 AM By KRISTIE RIEKEN AP Sports Writer

COLLEGE STATION, Texas(AP) -- Danielle Adams' outside shot is so good the center sometimes has to be reminded to wait for her inside shots and do what she does best.

On Wednesday night she played the game No. 8 Texas A&M needed, scoring 20 points to lead the Aggies to a 68-44 win over Iowa State.

"The coaches get mad sometimes because she can be such a finesse player, but looking at her size, nobody can really guard her," teammate Sydney Colson said. "We just try to get it to her on the inside and she took advantage of it this game. She didn't just step up and fade away like she does sometimes and as a result she had a really good game."

When she takes over a game like she did against the Cyclones, her teammates like to call her performance beastly. She's OK with that description.

"That's what they want me to do, want me to be a beast inside and that's what I did," she said.

The victory gives the Aggies a seven-game winning streak heading into Sunday's game at No. 13 Oklahoma.

Texas A&M (14-1, 2-0 Big 12) led by 14 at halftime and went on a 7-0 run, that included four points from Adams, to open the second half and push the lead to 39-18.

The Cyclones (12-3, 0-2) didn't have an answer for Adams, the preseason Big 12 newcomer of the year and last year's junior college player of the year at Jefferson College. The 6-foot-1 center scored most of her points inside but also scored outside, blocked shots, and even made a smooth baseline drive to shake a defender and finish with a layup.

Adams led the team in scoring for the fourth time in the last five games despite playing just 23 minutes.

"Adams is a hard matchup for us and I think she's probably a hard matchup for a lot of people," Iowa State coach Bill Fennelly said. "She's very, very skilled, good with the ball, gets the ball deep and is so physically strong that even if you're in good position, she can overpower you."

Iowa State, which was foiled by poor shooting, was led by Alison Lacey's 19 points.

Texas A&M was up by 18 before going on an 8-0 run to increase its lead to 48-21 with about 13 minutes left.

The Aggies were held far below their Big 12-leading 83.9 points a game average, but they had more than enough in this one and never trailed.

About the only area in which the Aggies struggled Wednesday was from 3-point range where they missed their first seven tries before hitting three in the second half. They finished 3 of 17 on 3-point attempts.

Tanisha Smith added 10 points for Texas A&M, Adaora Elonu had nine and Sydney Colson scored eight points and had six assists.

The Cyclones struggled to get anything going and made just 15 of 50 shots as they scored their fewest points of the season. They also had several costly miscues including a couple of 5 second violations and at least three turnovers came when a player stepped out of bounds.

Texas A&M coach Gary Blair was proud of his team's defensive performance.

"That's hard to do," Blair said of holding Iowa State to a season-low. "I told my team before if we score 60 we'll win ... we made a pretty good team not play to their capabilities."

Amanda Zimmerman had nine points for the Cyclones who had only one player in double digits.

The Aggies scored the first four points of the game and went on a 10-4 run later in the first half to push their lead to 18-8 about seven minutes before halftime. Texas A&M added six straight points, capped by a steal and layup by Colson as time expired to lead 32-18 at halftime.