WACO — Battling a sellout crowd of 10,299 at the Ferrell Center in Waco, Texas, A&M’s No. 5 women’s basketball team fell 67-58 to No. 1 Baylor Wednesday.
“I’m proud of my basketball team,” said A&M Head Coach Gary Blair. “The nation got to see the No. 1 and No. 5 team in the country play tonight. We did everything right until the last three-and-a-half minutes. We played well but didn’t make good decisions down the stretch. Give Baylor credit. We played the best team in the country.”
Texas A&M (21-3, 9-2) remains in second place in the Big 12 standings despite the loss. The Aggies now trail conference-leader Baylor (24-1, 11-0) by two games.
Junior guard Tyra White was the spark plug in the A&M offense, recording a career-high 29 points and eight rebounds. White was 10-for-16 from the field and hit 8-of-10 from the free throw line.
“She’s been our most consistent player all year, but we just haven’t needed her,” Blair said. “Tyra is like a silent assassin. She doesn’t have much to say, and she’s the quietest kid on the team. I’m proud of this kid.”
Struggling on the offensive end for most of the game, A&M senior center Danielle Adams scored only nine points after recording a school-record 40 in Saturday’s win over Kansas. Adams was 4-of-15 shooting and the Aggies as a team were 31 percent from the floor.
“I don’t think we capitalized,” said A&M junior guard Sydney Carter. “We didn’t make shots when we needed to and we turned the ball over unforced. It was just bad offense on our part.”
Baylor sophomore center Brittney Griner was unstoppable in the final 10 minutes of play, scoring 16 of her 26 points on the night. Griner also picked up the double-double with 11 rebounds. The Bears continued to feed Griner in the post down the stretch, and A&M failed to find an answer.
“They did a good job of getting the ball into Griner,” Blair said. “She got much lower in the second half and stopped shooting those fadeaways. We tried to keep them from getting low. Great play by them.”
Despite the hype that followed Adams and Griner coming in, both stars were neutralized by defense early. Baylor held Adams to three points in the first half while A&M forced Griner to shoot 1-for-6 from the field for only three points.
“Baylor’s half-court defense was pretty good,” Blair said. “That’s how you stop somebody. You get right in their face like you’re in the NBA or something. We had some very good shots that didn’t go down in the first half, but it’s back to the drawing board. We’re going to keep working.”
Duplicating her performance against the Aggies in College Station, Baylor freshman guard Odyssey Sims scored 22 points and tallied five assists. Sims and Griner combined to score 48 of the Bears’ 67 points in the game.