There is always more emotion for Texas A&M fans when the neighbors from Louisiana come to town, and even more so now with longtime Baylor coach Kim Mulkey at the helm for LSU.
Unfortunately for Aggie fans, it was the No. 3 Tigers who came out victorious Sunday afternoon, Feb. 5, at Reed Arena as they took down the maroon and white, 72-66. Despite their best efforts the Aggies fell to 6-15 overall and 1-10 in the SEC while LSU remained unblemished, improving to 23-0 and 11-0 in the SEC.
LSU was led to victory by the duo of sophomore forward Angel Reese and former A&M transfer, fifth-year senior guard Alexis Morris. Reese scored a team-high 26 points while Morris added 22 points of her own, shooting 8-for-11 from the field.
The first time the Aggies and Tigers faced off this season LSU won in blowout fashion, 74-34.
“I think we’re a different team from when we played them at the beginning of January,” coach Joni Taylor said. “They were more confident and we had a better understanding of what it is we wanted to do.”
The shots were also falling much more for the Aggies than they did in the last matchup as well, shooting 37.3% from the field on Sunday as opposed to shooting 21.2% from the field in the last matchup.
“We stayed with them for a little bit the first game but we weren’t making all of our shots that we came back to make tonight.” junior guard Sahara Jones said.
The annual BTHO Breast Cancer game started off as if it was headed in the direction of the last matchup between the two sides as LSU gained an early 9-0 lead. The duo of Reese and Morris were hard to stop early as they helped the Tigers lead 18-8 at the end of the quarter with each scoring 8 points a piece.
Not much changed defensively for the Aggies in the second quarter as LSU continued to score at will. Despite this, there did seem to be a turning point in the second quarter. With 2:02 left in the quarter the Tigers led 37-20, but the Aggies responded with a quick 6-0 run helping dig themselves out of the deficit. A&M trailed 39-26 at the half.
LSU supported a heavy contingent of road fans, but there were also many Aggie fans in attendance Sunday helping the maroon and white even at the lowest point in the game.
“The crowd helped out a lot,” graduate guard McKinzie Green said. “I think it gave us energy when we were down 17 at that one point and we didn’t give up.”
The third and fourth quarters were ones that showed just how much improved this A&M team was from the last time they faced the Tigers. Although never able to tie the game up or pull in front, the Aggies fought hard and made it a game until the final whistle.
LSU led 66-62, the closest the Aggies got to the Tigers in the second half, with 1:45 remaining in the game.
A&M were unable to get the late game stops on defense and crucial buckets needed to win the game as they fell 72-66.
The Aggies have now dropped their last three games since collecting their first conference win of the season on Jan. 22 against Georgia.
A&M will look to end its losing streak as they travel to Starkville, Miss., to face Mississippi St. Sunday Feb. 12.