The Texas A&M womens basketball team had a record-breaking performance Sunday against the Missouri Tigers. The Aggies defeated Missouri 77-58 at Reed Arena to improve to 6-1 in SEC conference play and broke the Reed record for three-pointers in a game.
The Aggies quickly drifted away from the Tigers as senior guard Adrienne Pratcher hit the first of many three pointers, leading them to an 8-0 start in the first two minutes of the game.
The Tigers came into the game as the nations second-best three-point shooting team but failed to get into a rhythm early on. They turned the ball over three times in the first three minutes of the game.
Pratcher said the team did a good job of not letting them get any shots off early.
Coming into the game, Coach Starkey told us that they were a great three point shooting team. Pratcher said. So we needed to chase them off. Starting the game we didnt allow them to get open shots and we were locking down once they did have the ball and they werent able to get the shot off.
The Aggies held the Tigers to just 38% shooting in the first half. With ten minutes left to play in the half, freshman guard Peyton Little hit a three pointer to begin a 20-0 A&M run. Little and Pratcher accounted for eight of the nine A&M first-half three-pointers.
Little credited her three point success to junior All-American candidate Kelsey Bone.
[Bone] draws a lot of attention inside, Little said. So Im just camping out on the outside waiting for her if theres a double team. She was able to find me a lot tonight and luckily I was able to hit the shots.
A&M led by 28 going into the second half. They only needed three more shots behind the arc to break the arena record for most threes in a game. The Aggies came out of intermission still on fire as Pratcher hit yet another three to open up the second half.
Reed Arena roared as the Aggies broke the arena three point shot record with three minutes left in the game. From the first three to the last, Missouri proved to be no contest for A&M. Although shots seemed to come easy this game, head coach Gary Blair said they will face tougher opponents in the future.
“The kids played very well.” Blair said. “Pratcher is just on a roll ever since conference started. It was good to see Peyton come in and hit multiple threes. It’s good to see her get into the flow. But you have to understand that Missouri is not one of those top 20 teams. We’re going to see better zones. I’ve got a lot of ‘drama’ games and tough road games to go.”
The Aggies got off to a rough start this season after losing their first three games to Top 10 teams but have managed to attain a 16-5 record.