The Texas A&M women’s basketball team got its season started on the right foot in its first exhibition game, dominating Texas Wesleyan in all aspects of the game with a 92-40 onslaught.
It took the Aggies 11 seconds to score their first points of the game, and they never looked back. They never trailed in the game and mixed an efficient offense with an overpowering defense to completely smother the Rams from the onset.
“I thought we really came out ready to play,” head coach Gary Blair said after the game. “We were playing a lot of different defensive schemes on them that we are still working on, in particularly a lot of traps and everything like that.”
Those defensive schemes confused the opponent all game long, as the Aggie defense forced a whopping 27 turnovers and were able to translate those miscues into 18 points on the other end.
It was on offense, however, where the Aggies showed the most promise and improvement from last season. Wesleyan started the game off playing man-to-man defense, so A&M was able to show off its new motion offense that was installed in preseason practice.
The results speak for themselves, as the Aggies had five different players in double figures, with senior Courtney Williams leading all scorers with 17.
“I think that, this year, balanced scoring is really going to be important for us,” Williams said. “Our new motion offense should get everybody points, whether it’s screening to get open shots or something like that.”
Wesleyan switched to a zone defense in the second half, which is something that likely would have given the Aggies trouble in the past because of their inability to make perimeter shots. However, if one game is any indication, making shots from behind the arc should not be a problem for this year’s group.
“Remember how bad we’ve been the last two years at shooting the three ball?” Blair asked himself. “Well, now I’ve got kids that can shoot the three ball.”
As a team, the Aggies made a remarkable 8-of-13 three-point attempts, including two apiece from Jordan Jones, Taylor Cooper and Danni Williams.
Jones, who scored eight points and dished out a game-high nine assists, said she didn’t feel any ill effects from the ACL surgery she went through at the end of last season.
“Physically, I felt pretty good,” Jones said. “I feel like I’m where I’ve worked so hard to be, but I feel like I still have different levels that I can reach, and it’s going to be a process.”
Solid passing from the Aggies contributed to the impressive scoring output. They compiled 24 assists in the game, which is something that Blair said is a true team effort.
“When you have 24 assists in the ballgame, it means you’re really sharing the ball, it isn’t all just Jordan,” Blair said in reference to his senior point guard.
It was a much more competitive second half, as Wesleyan got over some of their early-game fears that naturally come with playing an upper-echelon SEC team like A&M.
The Aggies have now won eight consecutive exhibition games, and will resume play on Friday, November 11, with a home exhibition game against Texas State at 6 p.m. The contest will be broadcast on SEC Network Plug.
