Behind a double-double performance by junior point guard Jordan Jones, the No. 5 Texas A&M women’s basketball team downed Northwestern State 75-42 Wednesday morning at Reed Arena in front of over 4,400 schoolchildren. The team hosted Elementary School Day, welcoming students and teachers from across the Bryan-College Station area. The attendance capped at 7,712 and was the largest regular season non-conference crowd in program history.
“The kids were awesome,” Jones said. “Coming out, hearing them scream, dancing to the songs they were playing, it just really put a good spirit in our hearts before the game, during the game, and after the game.”
Jones posted 15 points and 10 assists in the game and was three rebounds shy of her second-career triple-double with seven on the day. After the game the team went into the crowd to help lead the children in the Aggie War Hymn, and Jones came back a dressed a little lighter after being bombarded by the young fans.
“I came here with no socks, no shoes, no ankle bracelets, and no headband,” Jones said. “They all stripped me. They’re just great kids. They look up to us and I love traditions like this and that’s what makes A&M so special — to do things like this and give back to the community.”
The Aggies (8-0) held the Lady Demons (4-2) to just a 27.6 field-goal percentage, and A&M’s pressuring defense forced Northwestern State to settle for outside jump shots due to a size disadvantage in the paint. The Aggies strategy paid off as the Lady Demons went just 5-for-31 from three-point range. Head coach Gary Blair said he was pleased with how his press-defense operated.
“I thought we did a pretty good job,” Blair said. “They had to use three timeouts and we got I think two or three five-second counts. We’re getting better on it. We want teams to play faster than they want to play, and that’s what a press will make you do sometimes.”
Junior guard Courtney Walker had 10 points on the day and extended her streak of double-digit scoring games to 21. Blair said he put Walker in towards the end of the game so she could notch an additional bucket and keep her streak alive.
“I put [Walker] in at the end to finally get that last shot to get that double-figure streak going,” Blair said. “I just feel like sometimes you need to reward streaks for what they are. She was unselfish the majority of the game and missed a couple that she normally doesn’t miss.”
The next leg of A&M’s schedule will take them to the Dallas Fort-Worth Metroplex, beginning with a game against TCU Sunday at 1 p.m. that will be televised on Fox Sports Southwest. Despite the team getting off to its best start since the 2008-09 season, Jones said the Aggies haven’t been close to perfect up to this point and need to keep their momentum rolling.
“I would give us a grade of B- right now,” Jones said. “We still have little things that we can work on such as blocking-out and rebounding constantly and consistently, penetration drives by the guards, contesting shots — just little stuff like that against really good teams that we’re going to have to correct. Hopefully down the road we get to an A+ and we just continue to streak down into March and April.”
A&M will return to Reed Arena on Dec. 13 for a matchup with Houston.