Texas A&M women’s basketball team hosts No. 17 Depaul in a huge weekend for college basketball, as college football takes a hiatus before the bowl games.
Coming off a break after playing three games in four days, the Aggies must adjust to DePaul’s fast pace offense University at Reed Arena. The game starts at 2 p.m. and can also be viewed on SEC Network.
Head Coach Gary Blair said they must DePaul is a high-scoring team and they must defend the basket to be in a good position to win the game.
“In the past two seasons, Depaul’s high powered offense has been below 70 points only four times and only once on their home court,” Blair said. “We need to hope they miss and make them miss shots and then get back in transition and make shots.”
DePaul plays unlike any team in the college basketball. Courtney Walker, a computer science senior, said DePaul tries to control other teams with their quick pace.
“They push the ball very well,” Walker said. “They sub fast and play fast and trying to speed you up. They are not like anybody else we’re going to will play.”
In order to limit DePaul’s high-powered offense, the Aggies must have good transition defense and be able to handle the pressure from DePaul.
Walker also said that the team must improve on their focus and execution against DePaul.
“Our focus can be better because we will have games like against Cal where we’ll take them with everything and have great defense and we’ll turn around against Ohio State and they getting exactly all the things they want,” Walker said.
The main way DePaul has beat other teams is simply outscoring them with their offense andIt will present a new challenge to the Aggies.
The women’s basketball team has played some tough matchups recently and had a demanding three game stretch coming into this week. Chelsea Jennings, an environmental design architecture studies senior, said she has learned a lot about the team in their demanding past three games.
“We have an edge to us,” Jennings said. “When we get get, we don’t stay down, we try to stay up and stay positive.”
Blair s believes Saturday’s game will be one of the better games the team has played at home this season and encourages students and fans to come out.
“The fans are going to love it because it will be up and down and shooting threes and a lot of scoring and probably not a whole lot of fouls,” Blair said.