In the SEC Tournament quarterfinal, the Texas A&M Aggies fell 77-60 to the Ole Miss Rebels on Friday, March 3 in Greenville, South Carolina.
Senior guard Angel Baker opened the scoring for the game in favor of the Rebels with a 3-point shot assisted by fellow senior guard Marquesha Davis. Davis got a steal and made a free throw in the seventh minute.
Responding, freshman forward Janiah Barker’s jumper assisted by sophomore forward Jada Malone put the Aggies on the board at the halfway point of the third minute. Another combination of a Baker basket with a Davis assist kept the blue and red in the lead.
Another 3-point basket was sunk by redshirt sophomore guard Elauna Eaton, assisted by junior forward Madison Scott. Scott responded to junior guard Sahara Jones’ layup with one of her own, assisted by Eaton. Eaton followed up her teammates’ layup with her second 3-pointer of the game, assisted by Baker.
Back-to-back free throws by sophomore guard Tineya Hylton and Barker put the Aggies down 14-8 against the Rebels as the first quarter winded down. 30 seconds later, Barker’s jumper raised the maroon and white to 10 points. Soon after, Baker made a 3-point shot and fell to the ground, holding her ankle. She soon got up as the Aggies gained possession.
With six seconds remaining in the quarter, each team had five turnovers and a combined 11 fouls. When the game clock struck zero, the Fightin’ Farmers were only in a three point deficit due to four total free-throws by Malone and freshman guard Sydney Bowles.
By the end of the first quarter, the Aggies had seven defensive rebounds coupled with one offensive rebound.
Starting off the second quarter, Malone got four points in 30 seconds, with both baskets assisted by Bowles. In between the layups, Baker sent a floating jump shot into the netting. A combination of Scott’s free-throw and Baker’s 3-pointer put Ole Miss at 23 points to A&M’s 18.
Fifth year senior forward Aaliyah Patty sent a driving layup into the basket to shrink the Aggies’ gap to three points behind the Rebels at 23-20.
Davis put up four points for the blue and red in under a minute to bring her total points in the game to five, as well as pushing her team to 27 points.
Ole Miss pushed its lead to as much as 11 points ahead of A&M at the end of the second quarter with a jumper by Scott with a tad over a minute and half left in the half. As halftime approached, the Rebels protected their 11-point lead over the Aggies with a free throw by Davis to make the score 40-29.
Around three and a half minutes into the third quarter, Malone got her third foul and the 12th for A&M. The Rebels extended their lead to 13 points over the Aggies with a score of 48-35. Junior guard Destiny Salary made one of her two free throws to add a point to the now 14-point lead.
Patty exited the court with 35 seconds left on the clock in the third quarter due to receiving her fourth personal foul of the game. The blue and red left the court with an 18-point lead over the maroon and white as the third quarter came to an end.
Within the first two minutes of the fourth quarter, the Fightin’ Farmers struggled against as much as a 22-point deficit. With seven minutes remaining in the game, Hylton jumped up to secure a defensive rebound and landed in a near split position on the court.
Bowles made a free-throw to lower the points the maroon and white were losing by to 19, but Eaton soon after made a 3-pointer to push the Rebels to 71 points against the Aggies’ 49. A media timeout rolled around and Davis sent in a floating jump shot assisted by graduate guard Myah Taylor to put Ole Miss at 73 points, putting them 24 points above A&M.
Barker scored the last points of the game with a jumper to push the Aggies to a 17-point loss to the Rebels. She scored 22 points in the game, just below her career high of 24 points against Georgia on Jan. 22.
This was the last game of the season for A&M, as it finished with a 9-20 overall record and a 2-14 mark in SEC play.