As three seniors played their last home game at Reed Arena, the No. 17 Aggies upset No.11 Missouri, 82-63, Sunday as the regular season came to an end.
The Aggies (22-8, 11-5 SEC) came out fighting with Junior Danni Williams putting up 10 points in the first quarter as the Aggies led the Tigers (23-6,11-5 SEC) 21-18. Freshman Chennedy Carter would get going scoring 11 in the second to go with her three steals. Williams would remain hot and bring her scoring total to 16 points. Senior Jasmine Lumpkin had five points of her own to go with team-leading 6 rebounds.
The Aggie defensive effort shut down the Missouri offensive output, only allowing seven points in the second quarter. With an offensive groove going, the Aggies led at halftime 43-25.
Junior Anriel Howard would get into the mix in the second half putting her scoring in total 16 points and 10 rebounds for her sixth straight double double. Along with this being her sixth straight double-double, she broke the record for most career all time rebounds and single season rebounds for an Aggie.
Carter led the team in scoring with 23 points. with 23 points, Williams followed with 20 points of her own. Hillsman and Lumpkin ended with 9 points each in their last games at Reed Arena.
With the SEC tournament up next and the NCAA tournament to follow, Hillsman said she would not want to get hot at any other time than right now.
“Going into March you want to be playing your best basketball because that’s when the buzzer-beaters and magic happens,” Hillsman said.
Lumpkin said the Aggie tandem of Carter and Williams along with help of Senior Lulu McKinney set the tone for the game.
“Thanks to our 1-2 punch we got off to an early lead. We just all went out there and did our job. Whether it was rebounding or scoring we just focused on our jobs. Even when McKinney came off the bench she just went in and did her job and scored,” Lumpkin said.
McKinney said the environment for Senior Day and the end of regular season play was one she was thankful to experience in her final home game representing Texas A&M.
“It felt great to play out there at home with the 12th man, in front of my family one last time,” McKinney said.
Texas A&M head coach Gary Blair said the chemistry between Carter and Williams allowed the Aggies take a commanding lead over the Tigers.
“We came out hot as Chennedy did her job in finding the open hot man, who happened to be Williams. They then did a good job of staying active on the defensive end and turning that into offense. The defensive effort of whole team was astounding and lead to offensive output,” Blair said.
Missouri head coach Robin Pingeton said Missouri’s early mishaps were too much to recover from and said that A&M was a strong team that has a chance to have a long postseason.
“We can’t let a good team get out a head like that, when you do this is what happens. All the credit in the world to A&M, they look like they can make a run in the tournament,” Pingeton said.
Now with the end of the regular season, Blair said he and his team will focus on preparing for the conference tournament. Blair said their performance in Nashville will dictate where they will be seeded in the national tournament, putting a sense of urgency on the team heading into the conference tournament.
“We want the No.4 seed in the NCAA tournament so we’ll need two wins in the SEC tournament,” Blair said.
The Aggies enter the SEC tournament as the No. 5 seed, coming off a two-game win streak in which they outscored their opponents 186-123.
The SEC tournament begins March 1, at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, Tennessee where they will face against the winner the Vanderbilt-Arkansas game.