The Texas A&M women’s basketball won its second consecutive close game on Saturday afternoon, beating TCU 82-78 in Reed Arena to remain undefeated.
Senior guard Courtney Walker led the Aggies (4-0) in scoring with 23 points, and she also grabbed eight rebounds. It was the second straight game that she topped the 20-point plateau and the fifth consecutive game that she has scored in double figures.
“The resiliency of this team is pretty amazing to me,” A&M head coach Gary Blair said after the game. “My five seniors stepped up tonight. All five of them played big time minutes. It’s going to be a sad day when they graduate because we couldn’t really use our depth in this game.”
A&M continued its dominance at home, as this win improved the Aggies’ home record to 30-3 since the start of the 2013-2014 season.
The Aggies found themselves trailing for most of the game thanks to a barrage of three-pointers by the Horned Frogs (3-1). TCU made 11-of-20 shots from behind the arc, including a 6-of-7 showing by guard AJ Alix, who led all scorers with 24 points.
In addition to Walker, A&M’s two other preseason All-Americans played excellent basketball down the stretch. Jones finished with 17 points and dished out nine assists, while Courtney Williams filled up the stat sheet with 17 points, four rebounds and four assists.
“That girl played her butt off. 39 minutes, there’s no way she needs to be playing that many minutes back to back games coming off of ACL [surgery],” said Blair, who needs only one more victory to reach 700 for his career. “We would not have won that game had it not been for Jordan Jones and her senior leadership and what she could do.”
The Aggies fell behind by as many as 11 points with less than 30 seconds left in the first half, but a three-point play the old fashioned way by Williams cut the deficit to six going into intermission.
The game remained close in the third and fourth quarters, but the Aggies ultimately proved they were the better team.
With the score knotted at 76 and just under two minutes left in the game, senior guard Chelsea Jennings drove baseline for a layup to give the Aggies the lead. After a miss by TCU, Jones made an incredible acrobatic layup to extend the lead to four points.
It was a lead that the Aggies did not relinquish, and Walker made another jumper for good measure in their final possession.
The Aggies will be back in action on Friday, November 27, where they will participate in the South Point Thanksgiving Shootout in Las Vegas. A&M plays its first game Friday against California at 2:00 p.m., and then plays Ohio State on Saturday at 2:00 p.m. as well.
