Texas A&M women’s basketball suffered its first loss of the season in a road game against the Purdue Boilermakers on Thursday, Nov. 16.
Despite getting off to a hot 8-0 run to start the game, the Aggies could not hang on to the momentum, falling to Purdue, 72-58.
The Boilermakers saw double, as fifth-year guard Abbey Ellis and freshman G Rashunda Jones, each finished with 20 points.
Senior guard Madison Layden recorded eight points of her own and made a momentum-shifting layup in the first quarter to give the Boilermakers a lead they held for the rest of the game.
The Aggies suffered from a lack of production out of senior G Aicha Coulibaly and graduate G Endyia Rogers.
Both transfers were featured on ESPN’s top 35 transfers in the offseason, and had scored double digits in the first two games this season, but only scored 7 and 5, respectively.
The Aggies have held their opponents to lower scores this season as coach Joni Taylor is big on defense. A&M Corpus Christi only scored 50 points against the squad in the seasoning opener while North Texas was held to 55 points in the second game of the season.
However, A&M could not buy a defensive stop, constantly leaving the Boilermakers unguarded to create wide-open lanes for them to score inside under the net.
The Aggies allowed 34 points in the paint and 26 points off of turnovers, the highest allowed in both categories this season.
The Aggies had small spurts of scoring to end four and five-minute droughts throughout the game, but ultimately could not find an answer for Purdue.
Sophomore G Janiah Barker led the Aggies in scoring with 19 points and 11 rebounds in her first double-double of the season.
Redshirt junior forward Lauren Ware followed with 12 points, 13 rebounds and four blocked shots of her own, recording her second double-double of the season.
Sophomore G Sydney Bowles added a season-high 9 points, nailing three shots from behind the arc. The final 3-pointer came in the closing minutes of the fourth quarter to cut the deficit to 69-58, but it was not enough to get the Aggies closer to a win.
The Aggies will be back at Reed Arena on Monday, Nov. 20, to host the Houston Christian Huskies at 7 p.m.