COLLEGE STATION, Texas - The defending national champions were facing an 0-2 start in the Big 12. Their vaunted defense? Last in scoring and last in field goal percentage allowed.

At halftime, trailing a spunky Oklahoma team by three points, Texas A&M had its Howard Beale moment. Like the delusional news anchor in Network, the Aggies decided they were as mad as hell and they weren't going to take it anymore.

"When you know how to play, you know how to play," sophomore Kelsey Bone said. "It was time to start playing. And it was time to stop talking about and worrying about who isn't here."

Through the first 12 games, the ninth-ranked Aggies had been trying to recapture last year's championship magic. Without point guard Sydney Colson and scorer/rebounder Danielle Adams, Texas A&M had been inconsistent. A&M beat No. 9 Louisville in its second game of the season but lost consecutive games to the other ranked foes it had faced (Purdue and Connecticut).

Then the Aggies went on the road and lost at unranked Kansas State Wednesday night. Three days of intense film study and practices had left the coaching staff zapped. Coach Gary Blair guzzled a 5-Hour Energy drink before the game.

"He's always pretty pumped up but his pre-game talk was really hyper," senior guard Sydney Carter said. "We realized it's our home court. The Big 12 is so balanced, you can't lose at home. It was time to stop feeling sorry for ourselves."

The pity party ended Sunday in Reed Arena. The Aggies jumped to a 9-0 lead, let it melt into a six-point OU lead in the first half before asserting control in the second half for a 75-58 victory.

Senior Tyra White scored 20 while Bone had 18 and Carter added 15. Senior Adaora Elonu had 12 and 10 rebounds; she combined with Bone to give the Aggies a strong advantage around the basket.

Oklahoma (9-4, 1-1) junior forward Joanna McFarland had a career-high 19 in the Big 12 opener but against the Aggies she was scoreless and limited to eight minutes because of foul trouble.

"Our bigs got in foul trouble and that hurt our substitution pattern," Oklahoma coach Sherri Coale said. "We had matchup problems. They did a great job of exposing some of the matchups we had defensively. We couldn't just stop 'em inside."

The Aggies (10-3, 1-1) entered the game allowing foes to shoot 40 percent and score nearly 61 per game. Both rank last in the Big 12. But Texas A&M can usually be found near the top in turnover margin and they entered Sunday's game forcing nearly 22 per game.

The Aggies turned the Sooners every way but loose, forcing 23 turnovers and converting those for 26 points. Texas A&M also had 14 second chance points.

"That was their offense - scoring off turnovers and offensive rebounds," said Coale, whose team turned it over four times simply trying to inbound the ball.

As the coaches and analysts like to say, the last five minutes of the first half and the first five of the second half can decide the outcome.

"We had to come out and punch 'em in the second half," said Whitney Hand, who finished with 17 points and six assists. "We failed do that, we got behind and we were chasing them the whole second half."

Hand's two free throws gave Oklahoma a 25-19 lead with 3:35 remaining in the first half. But Carter, who missed her first six shots, made her last five shots of the half. She scored nine of the Aggies' last 13 points of the half and assisted on another basket.

That spurt enabled Texas A&M to stay in contact with the Sooners, who led 31-28 at halftime.

A 12-2 run in the first four minutes of the second half tilted the scoreboard to the Aggies' side. Oklahoma was down just three with over 12 minutes remaining but an 18-8 run - with Elonu and Bone combining for 10 points - pushed Texas A&M's lead to 68-52 with just over two minutes remaining.

"It's nice to see we can actually play at the level we're expected to play at," Carter said when asked about the Aggies' defensive numbers. "It was time to stop being last, it's time to start being first like where we're supposed to be."