In her first full game back from an ankle sprain, junior guard Chennedy Carter accounted for over half of Texas A&M women’s basketball’s 73 points, garnering 37 points in 37 minutes of play.
Carter got off to a quick start, putting up four points to open scoring for the Aggies and lead them to a road victory over No. 25 Tennessee.
In the fourth quarter, Carter added 12 points, nine of which came on free throws. She finished her night shooting 10-of-22 from the field, including 3-of-5 from behind the arc and 14-of-16 from the free-throw line. Carter also added five rebounds.
The Aggies’ next highest scorer was senior guard Shambria Washington with 10 points. Washington finished shooting 3-of-4 from the field and a perfect 2-of-2 on her three-pointer attempts.
Junior forward N’dea Jones, who had notched 11 consecutive double-doubles prior to this game. She just barely missed the feat on Sunday with 16 rebounds and eight points. The Volunteers succeeded in limiting Jones’ production, allowing her to only make two of her eight attempts, with the bulk of her points coming on four of six free throw attempts.
Three of her free throws came in the fourth quarter, helping the Aggies garner 17 points of their 20 final quarter points off of free throws
The game stayed close early, with neither team being able to pull away to more than a six-point lead in the first quarter.
Despite going out to a quick 6-2 lead, a 10-0 scoring run by Tennessee helped the Volunteers take a 15-12 lead going into the second quarter.
A&M opened up the second quarter on a 10-2 run and with Carter adding nine consecutive points in the middle of the quarter, took a 36-30 lead into the break.
The Aggies took a 38-30 lead at the beginning of the second half on a jumper by Washington. A&M managed to lead by 10 points on a pair of three-pointers from Carter and Washington, but Tennessee finished the third quarter on a 9-2 run to decrease the Aggies’ lead 53-47.
Seventeen free throws in the fourth quarter pushed A&M to a 73-71 win over Tennessee as the Aggies bested the Volunteers on the road.
With the win, the Aggies move to 20-5 on the season, with an 8-4 record against conference opponents. Tennessee falls to a 17-8 season record and is 7-5 in SEC play.
The Aggies will stay on the road as they face Georgia at 6 p.m. on Feb. 20 in Athens, Georgia.