The statistics are against the Aggie women’s basketball team when it travels to Lubbock to play No. 7 Texas Tech tonight.
The unranked Aggies have yet to win a Big 12 game, while Tech is 3-2.
The Aggies shot a meager 31.5 percent last game against University of Texas, while Tech averages 45 percent for the season. Worst of all, the Aggies have not won a game against Tech in their last 14 tries.
Fortunately for the Aggies, the game won’t be decided by conjecture but by 40 minutes of basketball steals to her credit, she is now No. 13 all time, in steals, in the NCAA and No 2. the Big 12. The Big 12 record is 418.
Williams leads the team in scoring with 14.3 points per game, shooting 34.6 percent from the floor. Overall the Aggies average 62.4 points per game, shooting 39 percent.
Tech averages 45 percent from the floor with almost 78 points per game. Blair remains unflinching in the face of such adversity.
“Playing top teams is why I came to A&M (to coach),” Blair said. “So far the biggest advantage Ihave over the other coaches is I am four inches taller than them.”
Blair said he keeps his team’s confidence up by counting the small victory.
“Moral victories – we don’t talk about because that is selling yourself out,” Blair said. “You keep your kids up by teaching them constructive criticism but also being able to put an arm around them and tell them what they are improving in. You have to have a little bit of both.”
Before they went cold in Big 12 play, the Aggies were 7-4. They have been within five points of winning in five out of six of their conference losses and two games, Oklahoma State and Texas, the games came down to the final minute.
The Oklahoma State game was won by the Cowgirls with a last second shot, and No. 21 Oklahoma was taken into overtime.
Blair said that he came into the top conference in the country for his first year as head coach but is confident his team will not be shut out.
“The ‘W’ is coming,” Blair said after last week’s defeat.
After Sunday’s loss to No. 5 Texas, Aggie guard Toccara Williams said she was ready for Tech.
“We can’t let this get us down,” Williams said. “They lost a key player (top scorer Jia Perkins), and we hope to take advantage of that.”
Perkins was injured earlier in the season and will not play on tonight.
Aggie Head Coach Gary Blair said Perkins’ injury hurts Tech, but believes the Red Raiders are still a team capable of winning the national championship.
“Texas Tech has tremendous depth, where they can lose their best player and it affects them but it doesn’t affect them that much,” Blair said.
Tech has dropped five spots in The Associated Press poll from number two to seven since Perkins’ injury.
Blair said Tech freshman Alicia Robertson has taken up the slack for the Raiders in the last two games since Perkins went down.
Robertson averages 19.7 points per game for the season with 27 in the overtime loss versus Oklahoma State last weekend.
In Aggieland last weekend, Williams had a career highs, 24 points and nine steals. With 405 steals to her credit, she is now No. 13 all time, in