Despite a 26-point performance from sophomore guard Courtney Walker, the No. 16 Texas A&M women’s basketball team (21-7, 11-3 SEC) fell to the No. 15 Kentucky Wildcats Sunday, 83-74. The loss is just A&M’s second at home all season.
“I am really proud of our players. They played a heck of a game today against a really good A&M team,” said Kentucky head coach Matthew Mitchell. “They are so tough, well coached and a really good team.”
Kentucky (20-7, 8-6 SEC) was able to jump out to a 21-13 lead at the 10-minute mark of the first half. The Aggies were resurrected by Courtney Walker’s 17 first half points, which is a career high for the sophomore guard.
Despite Walker’s hot hand, A&M went into the half trailing 39-34. The Wildcats out-rebounded the Aggies 25-12 in the first half.
“The first half, they played a whole lot harder than us and killed us on the boards,” said Texas A&M head coach Gary Blair. “Walker kept us in the ballgame the first half.”
After the break, the Aggies were able to get the Wildcats into foul trouble early, getting into the bonus only six minutes into the second half. However, the Aggies were unable to capitalize and never managed to overtake the Wildcats at any point in the second frame.
“Ultimately, when we had our opportunities, we just couldn’t come up with stops,” said sophomore point guard Jordon Jones. “They just kept on building their lead from our mistakes. We just have to buckle down and get stops in crucial moments like those.”
Walker finished the game with her first career double-double and posted her seventh game this season with 20 or more points.
The Kentucky bench outscored the A&M bench 53-10, and Blair said he was displeased with his team’s play down the stretch of the game.
“I’m disappointed,” Blair said. “What we’ve got to do is not win games, but get better when we’re playing games. Make the good decisions. We had a lot of good things happen in this game just like Kentucky did. But at the same time, you’ve got to finish it out. When you’re at home, you’re supposed to win. We needed to bring it home.”
The Aggies will host the Arkansas Razorbacks at 7 p.m. Thursday for their final home game of the season. The game will be televised on Fox Sports Southwest.