The No. 14 Texas A&M women’s basketball team will host Wright State University in the first round of the NCAA Tournament at 3:30 p.m. on Friday.
The Aggies hold a regular season record of 24-7 and are 12-4 against Southeastern Conference opponents after falling to Arkansas in the semifinals of the SEC Tournament.
Wright State is 27-6 and 16-2 in the Horizon League Conference.
Blair said that compared to Wright State, A&M is a young team after losing four starters from last year’s squad.
“For a good portion of the year, we started five sophomores,” Blair said. “Now we start four sophomores and a junior. When you’re looking at Wright State, I think they have three senior starters.”
A&M has hosted games in the NCAA Tournament in six of the last eight years. A&M head coach Gary Blair said that shows the consistency of both women’s basketball and all A&M sports.
“[A&M knows] how to host championships for playoff rounds in every sport,” Blair said. “I’m not sure there’s another university that hosts more championship events than Texas A&M. We’re good at it.”
This will be sophomore Chennedy Carter’s first game back since sustaining a pinky fracture in A&M’s 66-53 win over Arkansas in the regular season finale on March 3. Carter sat out in the Aggies’ two SEC Tournament games.
Carter said that she has no restrictions from her injury, but will wear a wrap with padding on her pinky at the beginning of the tournament.
“For me to just sit out two weeks and just come back and recover as quick as I did is really a blessing,” Carter said.
Despite missing the two games, Carter remained the SEC’s leading scorer with 22.5 points per game. Sophomore guard Kayla Wells said that though the team struggled without Carter, they learned how to play without her.
“Chennedy is a big piece of this team,” Wells said. “I felt like we handled it well without her. That helped a lot of people who didn’t get a lot of chances, get some chances in the tournament to get us ready for this.”
On Sunday, A&M will take on the winner of No. 18 Marquette versus No. 21 Rice.
Women’s basketball kicks off NCAA Tournament against Wright State
March 22, 2019
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