Friday's Big 12 Women's Basketball Roundup

Carter leads No. 8 Texas A&M into Big 12 final

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) - Texas A&M is back in the Big 12 tournament finals for a fourth consecutive year, and the Aggies didn't need a big scoring game from Danielle Adams to get there.

Oklahoma held the Big 12's leading scorer to 16 points - seven below her average - but the No. 8 Aggies easily beat the No. 21 Sooners 81-68 to advanced to the championship game Saturday against No. 3 Baylor.

"The key to it in this tournament is to quit waiting for Danielle to score 40 and have balanced scoring," Texas A&M coach Gary Blair said. "That's what we had."

Adams was limited to 27 minutes because of foul trouble, but guard Sydney Carter came up huge in the second half, scoring all of her 19 points in the final 20 minutes. The Sooners trailed by seven points at the half and Carter had the solution every time Oklahoma tried to make a run in the second half.

Tyra White chipped in 18 points and Adams contributed 11 rebounds as the Aggies (27-4) defeated Oklahoma for a fifth consecutive time.

Carter finished 6 of 12 from the floor, including 3 of 6 from 3-point range. She was limited to just 7 minutes in the first half because of foul trouble.

"They left me open, so I just knocked down the shots in the second half," Carter said.

Adams was happy to see her teammates come through on a day when she wasn't at her best.

"I'm just glad I have teammates like that backing me up," Adams said. "Carter came out hot in the second half and Tyra is always going to do her thing."

Baylor, which defeated Kansas State 86-53 in the earlier semifinal, has a pair of victories over Texas A&M this season. The Lady Bears won 63-60 in College Station and 67-58 in Waco. "We want to play Baylor four times," Blair said. "If we do, we'll be in the Final Four. That's how good Baylor is."

Oklahoma (21-11) pulled to 43-41 early in the second half, but the Aggies went on an 11-0 run to gain control. Whitney Hand scored 21 points and 6-foot-6 Nicole Griffin had 12 points - hitting all six of her shots - and eight rebounds for the Sooners.

No. 3 Baylor 86, Kansas State 53

Offense is a given for No. 3 Baylor, so coach Kim Mulkey was especially pleased with the defense and rebounding effort that advanced the Lady Bears to the Big 12 tournament final.

Brittney Griner scored 21 points and Destiny Williams added 18 to lead Baylor to an 86-53 victory over Kansas State, holding the Wildcats to 35 percent shooting and outrebounding the Wildcats 52-24.

"Those kids come to your program as some of the best players in the country, but those kids have never had to guard anybody," Mulkey said. "That's the biggest adjustment and where you see the most improvement."

Point guard Odyssey Sims added 14 while holding Kansas State's top scorer Brittany Chambers to 3-of-11 shooting and eight points. Kelsey Hill led the fourth-seeded Wildcats (21-10) with 14 points.

Williams finished 7 for 9 from the field. The offensive emergence of Williams gives opponents more to think about as they try to contain Griner inside.

The 6-foot-8 Griner scored all her points in just 29 minutes, and her intimidating presence left Kansas State mainly shooting from the perimeter.

Griner and Williams left the game midway through the second half with Baylor up by 30 points.