A crowd of 6,631 – including hundreds of Corps members – watched the No. 18 Texas A&M women’s basketball team defeat the Arkansas Razorbacks 77-54 on senior night at Reed Arena Wednesday.
“I’m happy for our team,” said senior center Karla Gilbert said. “They came out there and showed up – especially our guards. A lot of people were out there getting garbage play and I’m just happy that we were able to end at home for the last regular season game with a good W.”
Sophomore point guard Jordan Jones had a career night with 19 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists – good for the third triple-double in A&M history. There have been 17 players nationally to record a triple-double and just one in the SEC this season.
Jones said she wasn’t aware she was nearing a triple-double, but head coach Gary Blair pulled her aside and told her she needed just two more rebounds to reach the milestone.
“Coach Blair came up to the bench and said ‘Get me two more rebounds so I can pull you out and you’ll have a triple-double,'” Jones said. “So after that, I was telling everybody ‘Get out of the way, I’ll get it, I’ll get it.'”
Jones came into the game shooting just 8-of-46 from behind the arc on the season, but made 4-of-5 attempts Thursday.
This team goes as Jordan Jones goes,” Blair said. “She’s your leader. She’s your captain and she’s got to be the catalyst.”
In their last regular season home game, the Aggies jumped out to an early lead – opening the game with a 13-0 run including two three-pointers from Jones.
A&M led by as many as 15 points in the first half and would go into the locker room at halftime up 43-32. Sophomore forward Courtney Williams led both teams with 14 points at halftime and would finish the game with 18.
Arkansas kept the game close out of the gate in the second half, but a 10-0 Aggie run opened the lead to 23 points and the Razorbacks never recovered.
Every starter for the Aggies shot more than 50 percent from the field.
Gilbert – a College Station native – scored seven points, five rebounds and two blocks in her last scheduled game at Reed Arena. Kristen Grant and Cristina Sanchez-Quintanar, who is an SEC champion in both soccer and tennis, are the other seniors on the 2013-14 A&M squad.
“Coming into this game our coaches said to have that ‘over my dead body’ mentality,” Jones said. “I feel like that’s what we came out with today. Before the game even started, I went up to Coach Wright and said ‘I have to find a way for these three seniors to go out with a win. I feel like I owed that performance to them.”
A&M improves to 13-2 at home this season with the win and have had victories in 15 of its last 18 games.
The Aggies will finish their regular season schedule Sunday when they take on the Florida Gators (18-10, 8-7 SEC) in Gainesville.