There’s nothing quite like playing women’s basketball in the Southeastern Conference. For the majority of Texas A&M women’s basketball’s transfer-heavy roster, the Aggies got their first taste of that grind against a top-10 opponent as A&M dropped its SEC opener to No. 8 Oklahoma, 72-50, on New Year’s Day at Reed Arena.

“We got thrown into the fire tonight,” head coach Joni Taylor said. “Other than [graduate student forward Lauren Ware] and [junior guard Janae Kent], there’s nobody on our roster who’s played in this league. … It’s why you come to this league. So I think we all have a really good understanding of what that’s going to feel like, of what it’s going to look like.”

Things got out to a sloppy start, with Oklahoma and A&M combining for 15 turnovers in the first quarter — nine by the Sooners and four by the Aggies — while the visitors got out to a 15-9 lead at the end of the quarter thanks to nine points from freshman G Aaliyah Chavez.

The second quarter was equally as messy, with both teams once again combining for double-digit turnovers. Scoring wasn’t much better for either squad, with Oklahoma shooting 32% from the field while A&M posted a mark of 27% by halftime.

The difference came in the frontcourt, with the Sooners outrebounding the Aggies 63-35 for the game and outscoring A&M 38-20 in the paint.

“They were big, and going into this game, we knew that we had to stop them from getting paint points, and we did that in the first half,” junior F Fatmata Janneh said. “ … I feel like we just lost that a bit in the second half. So just making sure that we keep being physical inside, and they would have been a bit more ruffled.”

Though the offensive performance may have been less than ideal, the Maroon and White managed to slow down the nation’s second-best scoring offense, which had been averaging 96 points a game.

“I feel like we could have held them to less,” Janneh said. “We could have been more aggressive on defense, and that’s just stuff we can go back and work on for the upcoming days.”

Despite trailing by as much as 13 points late in the first half, A&M put together a 7-0 run — including a 3-point play from senior G Ny’Ceara Pryor — late in the second quarter that kept Oklahoma’s halftime lead to just 28-20. 

Ny aka the power train 🚂#GigEm | @NyCeara pic.twitter.com/8Bsf3YL6Sz

— Texas A&M Women’s Basketball (@AggieWBB) January 2, 2026

Pryor set the pace for the Aggies with 10 points at the half, while Chavez led all scorers with 11 of her own.

Not to be outdone, the Sooners made sure the Aggies’ momentum was halted in the third quarter by outscoring the Maroon and White 23-7, effectively putting the game out of reach. It was a balanced attack, with seven Oklahoma players finding their way into the box score in the third period.

It was a miserable third quarter overall for A&M, which went 0-10 from the field while turning the ball over nine times.

“When you look at the stat sheet, I mean, we’re right there, and then they come out in the third quarter, and we only scored seven points,” Taylor said. “And so we’ve got to be able to have more movement and not be stagnant. … In this league, that one quarter is the difference in being in the game and not being in the game.”

In the fourth quarter, the Aggies held their own, outscoring the Sooners 23-21. Unfortunately, that proved to be too little, too late, despite Pryor’s six points that brought her total up to 20, enough to tie Chavez and lead all scorers.

Janneh added 16 points of her own along with 10 rebounds, good for a double-double.

Next, the Aggies hit the road to visit the Georgia Bulldogs for their first away test of SEC play on Sunday, Jan. 4.