No. 17 Texas A&M women’s basketball broke its 10-game home winning streak with a 74-68 loss to the Lamar University Cardinals in the sixth annual elementary school day on Thursday morning at Reed Arena.
The game began unlike any other, since it was announced hours before the game that sophomore guard and team leader Chennedy Carter would not play due to a game suspension for violating team attendance rules.
“What we’ve got to do is realize we have a lot of games like this. It doesn’t matter who’s in our starting lineup,” A&M head coach Gary Blair said about the team’s performance. “We’re the bullseye on every team that comes into Reed Arena in non-conference.”
In the past five games this season, Carter has been a leader on the scoreboard, with a total of 95 points, 22 assists and averages 19 points per game.
Blair said regardless of whether the Aggies had Carter, the team should have rallied and taken advantage of Lamar’s mistakes on the court because he’s seen it happen in past seasons.
“I’ve played without Jordan Jones before, I’ve played without Tavarsha Williams, I’ve played without a lot of players before [and] we were able to win a ballgame,” Blair said. “Everybody’s on scholarship here, there’s no partials. So everybody better start earning and getting better and playing the game with a little bit more poise.”
During A&M’s performance in the first quarter, the effects of Carter’s absence became noticeable. Lamar dominated the court and didn’t allow the Aggies to get ahead once in the quarter.
Freshman forward Miya Crump and senior guard Chastadie Barrs led the Cardinals with nine points each, with Crump earning her points from three successful 3-pointers.
Entering the second quarter down 23-21, A&M showed some fight as sophomore guard Kayla Wells became the leader on the court. Wells had eight points, two assists and five total rebounds in this quarter alone.
Along with sophomore guard Aaliyah Wilson’s nine points and sophomore center Ciera Johnson’s seven points, the Aggies led for four minutes of the 10-minute quarter. Despite the change of pace, A&M was unable to hold Lamar before halftime as the Cardinals pulled ahead 39-35.
Lamar head coach Robin Harmony said starting the game with a lot of intensity and pressure is something her team excels at and tries to accomplish in every matchup.
“We are a full-court pressing team,” Harmony said. “We really don’t think we are quote unquote a good defensive team yet. That’s kind of what we’ve hung our hat on — full court press, run and jump, making you play faster than you want to play and then maybe having the wrong person shoot the ball.”
The next two quarters were similar for the Aggies. The Cardinals continued to control the scoreboard and, despite finishing with 22 personal fouls, didn’t let A&M gain from their mistakes. The Cardinals scored more points in three of the four quarters and used their 7-of-23 3-point success to move ahead of A&M, who went for its first 3-pointer at the end of the fourth quarter.
With the loss, A&M moves to 4-2 on the season while Lamar advances to 5-3.
Harmony said a win against a Sweet Sixteen team like A&M, gives the team confidence going into conference play.
“They know they can go in and play,” Harmony said. “We go right on the road again and play Kansas State, a Big 12 team. That is huge. … No matter what would happen today, we knew that we got better and we knew that we were getting ready to play in our conference.”