Ending a long streak of home games before hitting the road again, the Texas A&M Women’s basketball team (8-2, 0-0 SEC) defeated the Central Arkansas Sugar Bears (5-3, 0-0 Southland) 72-61 at Reed Arena on Saturday.
Despite their win, Texas A&M head coach Gary Blair said that they continue to struggle on defense and he was unable to give his players the court time he originally planned for.
“This was a ballgame I wanted to play kids a lot of minutes, but again it didn’t work out. When I subbed in they ran their offense very well.” Blair said. “In the second half, we’re not a very good defensive team right now and that is something we work on every day and we’ve got to do a better job.”
The Aggies came out with an aggressive defense to start the first quarter and lead the entire 10 minutes with six turnovers with the help of junior, Anriel Howard who led with eight points. With the score at 23-16 going into the second, Central Arkansas began to show some fight, getting within two of A&M with a layup by sophomore, Taylor Sells.
The Sugar Bears continued to challenge the Aggies and with a last-minute jump shot by senior, Taylor Baudoin, bringing them to a 13-point lead against A&M who only scored six points in the quarter. Going into halftime it was a tied ballgame with the score 29-29.
Howard said that unlike their past games, they came out with more energy and was able to secure a lead. However, she said that they need to get better at being mentally tough throughout the whole game rather than when they want to.
“We started pretty good the first quarter, then we went back down. I think it’s more about being mentally tougher.” Howard said. “Some people can call it fatigue, but I just think it’s more mental than physical. We just have to continue to play hard throughout the whole game, not just up and down when we want to.”
A&M quickly took back their lead in the third quarter with Khaalia Hillsman and Howard leading the way with a combined total of 11 points, score now 49-46 going into the fourth and final quarter.
Freshman, Chennedy Carter opened up the fourth with a three-point shot, as well as a steal that led to a jump shot by senior, Jasmine Lumpkin and brought the Aggies lead to 54-52. A&M was able keep this lead and finish on top, securing a 72-61 win against the Sugar Bears.
The Aggies will head to California next Friday, Dec. 15 to face off against the undefeated Southern California Trojans (8-0).
Khaalia Hillsman said their game plan going on the road is to create their own energy because they don’t have the advantage of being at home and having the 12th man behind them.
“I’m excited to go on the road. I love traveling. So, it’s really just going to be up to us to bring the energy that we need because it’s a whole different atmosphere when you’re on somebody else’s court.” Hillsman said. “When we’re on our court we have the advantage because it’s our 12th man fans, it’s our atmosphere…. it’s going to be up to us to bring the correct sense of urgency to be able to come out how we’re supposed to.”