Despite being a freshman, Chennedy Carter is no stranger to the spotlight.
After playing basketball throughout her early life, Carter was the star of her high school basketball team, playing on varsity at Timberview High School in Mansfield, Texas for three years. Her junior year, she averaged 18.0 points per game, 8.0 rebounds per game and led her team to the regional finals where they suffered their first loss of the season, finishing the season with a 30-1 record. Following, she had offers from across the country, however elected to verbally commit to Texas A&M.
During her senior year, Carter led Timberview to the Class 5A state championship game, averaging 20.4 and 4.5 rebounds per game. After producing a strong performance in the first three quarters of the championship, she fouled out in the fourth quarter, and her team narrowly lost the game. Despite the loss, she learned invaluable lessons from the game.
“I learned how I need to be more selective of the things I do on the court and to be cautious out there. My team needed me on the court and I fouled out,” Carter said. “That game was a big help to me and I learned a lot from that which I brought to A&M.”
After her high school season, Carter garnered nationwide recognition, highlighted by McDonald’s All-American honors and was named as the No. 6 college recruit by ESPN. Despite all of her new honors, Carter remained firmly committed to Texas A&M and was the highest high school recruit to ever join the Aggies when she signed her national letter of intent in May of 2017.
This past summer, Carter played for the U-19 USA women’s basketball team in the U-19 World Cup and led her team to the gold medal game. Carter scored 31 points, a single game scoring record for the U-19 squad; however, her team fell short, losing to Russia by four points. Regardless of the outcome, she enjoyed her tenure playing with the team and hopes to be able to play with them again this summer.
“I learned a lot playing with them, it was a great experience. I love the coaches and I love the team, I hope I can do that again,” Carter said.
After she fell short in two major championships in a couple month span, it would be easy to get discouraged; however, Carter remains focused on the positive impact those losses have had on her career.
“[The losses in the State Championship and World Cup Finals] give me confidence,” Carter said. “Sometimes the game won’t go my way, but I just have to keep playing. Even though I didn’t win the state championship or against Russia, there are better things in store for me. Who knows, maybe I could win an NCAA Championship. I just keep writing my story and playing hard and working on my journey.”
After the World Cup, Carter came to A&M and began her pursuit of that next goal of winning an NCAA Championship. Carter started the first game of the season and scored 15 points. Since then, Carter has continually improved and has started in every game. As her production has increased, so have the minutes head coach Gary Blair has had her on the floor.
“I love to play freshmen who are ready to play because then I can really look forward to the next years of youth,” Blair said.
Despite his love for playing freshmen, Blair isn’t just playing Carter, she’s earned the role. Carter leads the Aggie offense in scoring, 18.5 points per game. She is also leading all freshmen nationally in scoring.
“Chennedy is the first scoring point guard I’ve had since I’ve been here,” said Blair, who has been the coach since 2003.
Despite the high praise from her coach and early success, Carter isn’t satisfied with her performance as she still knows she can take it up a notch.
“I need to focus on everything in my game,” Carter said. “I’m not there yet and I still have a lot of work to do. Everything I do needs improvement.”
This resilient attitude is what has gotten her to this point, and she attributes it to having three brothers who constantly pushed her and ingrained in her a heightened sense of toughness.
“We always played outside,” Carter said. “It would just be us going at each other back-to-back. I give them a lot of credit as to how hard I play and how much heart I have out there on the court.”
The scariest part for opposing SEC teams is that Carter has progressed throughout the season, showing improvement in every game.
“She’s growing not only on the court but off the court as well. She’s maturing and it’s really awesome to see her going to the next level each and every day,” junior forward Anriel Howard said.
The A&M squad is currently 8-2 this season and will use their final four nonconference games as tuneups before they open SEC play against the defending national champions South Carolina on New Year’s Eve. Despite having no experience in SEC play, Blair isn’t concerned in the slightest that the level of play will bother Carter.
“She’s a junkie, she’s played against all those top SEC players, it won’t phase her,” Blair said. “She’s explosive, she’s a fun player to play with, other players love receiving her passes. Every game you’re going to see something different from her.”