Texas A&M head coach Gary Blair came close to leading a student parade to the Dixie Chicken on Sunday, a reward he promised if his women’s basketball team beat No. 3 University of Texas.
The lead changed hands six times during a game that was hotly contested into the final minute. In the end though, it was the Longhorns (17-2, 5-1 Big 12) who prevailed, 64-62.
“Sometimes you just survive,” said Longhorn coach Jody Conradt.
The Aggies (7-10, 0-6) led as late as 4:15 in the second, but could never recover after Texas guard Heather Schrieber hit a three-point shot to put Texas up by four with 2:08 to play.
“(Schrieber) hit some key shots when she was open,” said A&M senior point guard Toccara Williams.
Williams, whose 40 minutes of playing time dominated the Aggie offense, set career highs in scoring and steals with 24 points and nine steals.
Williams moved past the 400 career steal mark (403), making her No. 12 all-time in steals in the NCAA and No. 2 all-time in the Big 12. She is only the fourth NCAA player to accumulate 1,000 points, 500 rebounds, 600 assists and 400 steals in her career.
The Aggies had 13 points off 22 Longhorn turnovers while Texas only had three.
“We stayed in the game because of our turnovers,” Blair said. “We only had six in the whole ball game, two or three at the half. That says a lot for one of the best point guards in the country (Texas junior Jamie Carey).” Even though the Aggies took 26 more shots than the Longhorns, Texas scoring percentage was 48.9 percent compared with the Aggies 31.5 percent.
It was Texas freshman forward Tiffany Jackson, who came off the bench to play 32 minutes, that led Texas to victory.
Jackson had her second double-double of the year, ending the night with 15 points, 11 rebounds and four blocks – the team high in each category. Jackson’s block of A&M senior forward Janae Derrick with 19 seconds left took away hope of the Aggies making up the four point margin.
Jackson said she was able to maximize on A&M covering Schrieber outside opening up the paint.
“(A&Mwas) making it really hard for our guards to get the ball in the wings,” Jackson said. “It opened up a lot of things down low.”
Schrieber also had a double-double on Sunday with 11 points and 11 rebounds.
Texas out-rebounded A&M 46 to 32, including a pivotal 34-to-15 margin on the Aggie half of the court.
Aggie sophomore guard Erica Roy fouled out at the 4:38 mark, ending her successful coverage of Schrieber, who leads Texas in scoring with 12.7 points a game, but was held to only two in the first half.
Williams’ 31 attempted shots, 29 field goals and two three-pointers, was almost one-half on the teams 73 total. Blair said that he would like to see other players taking more shots, but supports Williams taking so many because the situation.
“She is having to put up more shots because we can rebound off her shots,” Blair said. “She knows she shouldn’t be shooting that many times, but right now that is all we have.”
The Aggies have only won a single game in their last nine tries, dropping six straight conference games.
Blair said a win is coming, and Williams said the team will be in good spirits as it travels to Lubbock to play No. 3 Texas Tech(16-2, 3-2) next Wednesday.
“We aren’t going to let this game get us down, we played extremely well from start to finish,” Williams said.