As the Aggies walked into the locker room at Humphrey Coliseum, the scoreboard read 41-23 in favor of the home team Mississippi State.
The maroon and white’s starters shot a combined 4-of-17 from the field. Only four players scored in the first half, half of them coming off the bench. Even further, those two bench players outscored the starters by a margin of 14-9.
After losing seven of its last eight games, Texas A&M women’s basketball didn’t want to add to its mid-season slump. The maroon and white saw improvements in their field-goal and free-throw percentages as well as turnovers, but it was much too late. The hole the Aggies had dug in the first half was too deep to climb out of. They were outscored 35-37 in the final two quarters.
The second quarter was the difference for the Aggies, and that was what dug the hole.
“[Mississippi State] shot 81% in the second quarter,” coach Gary Blair said. “It doesn’t matter who we tried, we got beat by backdoors, we got beat by 3s or we got beat by a team that could finish the dribble-drive and make the tough shot.”
The 78-58 loss to the Bulldogs in Starkville, Miss., was the Aggies’ third loss of 20 or more points in their last seven games. With an ever-falling conference record of 1-7, A&M is just 11-9 with eight regular season games remaining on its schedule
Plenty of A&M’s struggles can be chalked up to the team’s inability to put together a complete game. The Aggies have not won the second half for eight straight games, the most recent being their game against UTSA on Dec. 20.
“We do everything we are supposed to do in practice, and then we come out in the game and we fail to execute on offense and on defense,” graduate guard Kayla Wells said. “We have to be better. We have to be better.”
In any other game, the team’s leading scorer coming off the bench might be praised and paraded as a contributing factor to the team’s successes. However, for Wells, playing in her program-record 144th game with the team, this was not the case. Much of the reason why she scored eight more points than the next Aggie was a result of the struggles of her surrounding cast.
Wells had a strong performance, scoring 17 points, shooting 6-for-10 from the field, a perfect 5-for-5 from the free-throw line and adding on three assists. Yet, the rest of the team combined for a field goal percentage of just under 34.9%.
Senior forward Aaliyah Patty had a fine performance for the Aggies as well, nearly putting up a double-double. She grabbed eight rebounds and scored nine points while shooting 4-for-6 from the field.
The Bulldogs were largely able to do whatever they wanted offensively. Running just an eight-person rotation, five different Bulldogs scored double digits. Senior guard Anastasia Hayes led the team with 22 points and seven assists while sophomore guard Jerkaila Jordan grabbed nine boards and scored 18 points on 8-for-9 shooting.
Part of what helped the Bulldogs control the flow offensively is that they stuck to their play style, helping them stay in rhythm, sophomore guard Jordan Nixon said.
“Mississippi State is known for their dribble-drive [offense],” Nixon said. “They’re quick. All their people can probably do that better than anyone else in the country. They stuck with what they’re good at and played to their strengths.”
The Aggies will have more than a few days to regroup before their home game where they will play host to the Arkansas Razorbacks. The game will take place on Thursday, Feb. 3 at 8 p.m.
Editor’s Note: Jordan Nixon is an opinion writer for The Battalion
