The No.19 Texas A&M women’s basketball team beat the No.11 Kentucky Wildcats 62-55 at Memorial Coliseum. This is A&M’s third top-15 win of the season and secures the third seed for the Aggies in the Southeastern Conference Tournament.
A&M now has a double-bye in the tournament up until the quarterfinal March 8.
The Aggies now improve to 22-6 overall and 11-4 within the conference. The victory was secured thanks to a strong performance from sophomore guard Chennedy Carter. Carter led the team with a 24-point performance.
Sophomore Ciera Johnson played well scoring 16 points while leading the team with 13 rebounds. This is Johnson’s second straight game with a double-double. Johnson also knocked down a shot in the final minute pulling the Aggies away by seven points and securing the victory.
A&M came into the game hot taking a 19-7 lead in the first quarter. The Wildcats bounced back by going on a 19-3 point run against the Aggies in the second quarter. A&M led Kentucky going into the half 28-26.
Sophomore Kayla Wells scored 14 points, earning her 11th straight game scoring at least 13 points, following the past two 20 plus point performances. Fellow sophomore N’dea Jones notched 13 rebounds and scored seven points. Of the 62 points scored in the game 61 were scored by sophomores. The only other point coming from senior forward Cayline Martin.
Kentucky falls to 23-6 overall and 10-5 in the SEC. This is now the fourth straight win against the Wildcats for the Aggies including their last three visits to Kentucky. The win is particularly impressive as the Wildcats were on an SEC-best six-game win streak.
Carter has now scored 20 plus games for the fourth straight game. This is the 19th time she’s scored 20 plus points this season. With Johnson’s performance against Kentucky, she now has nine double-double’s for her career putting seventh all time in Texas A&M’s career double-doubles list.
The win against Kentucky boosts head coach Gary Blair record 379-157 while in Aggieland and 787-320 throughout his career. Blair now ranks seventh amongst active coaches in career wins.
Texas A&M closes out the regular season against the Arkansas Razorbacks at Reed Arena Sunday, March 3rd. Tip-off is set for 4 p.m and is to be televised on the SEC Network.