After a cold, disappointing road trip for the Aggies to Durham, N.C., Texas A&M returned home to a warm and cozy Reed Arena to take on the Texas Southern Tigers. In a game that, on paper, was closer than it should have been, the Aggies defeated the upset-minded Tigers 67-54.
In a weird turn of events before the game even tipped off, the Aggies started the game down 1-0 after a single technical free throw was awarded to the Tigers due to a violation regarding A&M’s shot clock lights.
“The rule changed a few years ago, I don’t know why we haven’t made that change,” head coach Joni Taylor said. “I’ve got to make some calls and figure that piece out. Apparently, the shot clock is not supposed to light up when it hits zero, and ours does. And so that is an automatic technical foul.”
Texas Southern came into the game 0-3 on the season, losing by an average of 37.3 points per game, but kept this game close throughout, even managing to cut the lead to four in the third quarter.
“I would say this is not the response [to losing to Duke] that we were looking for,” freshman forward Janiah Barker said. “I’m super glad we won, but this is a team we should have beat by 50. No disrespect to that team, just that I feel like, for our expectations for this team, they should be higher.”
The Aggies came into the game sluggish, never managing to pull away in the game until late into the fourth quarter.
“It’s disappointing,” Taylor said. “You know coming off of a loss to Duke, there’s some things that are correctable that we need to be done talking about, and to come out and not have everybody do that is disappointing. We’ve got to play five that are going to give us effort and energy and be locked in and know what it is we’re doing, and that’s where we are.”
Early on in this season, turnovers and missed opportunities on the offensive end have been a problem for A&M.
“I think in some cases what we are asking them to do, for them, seems hard,” Taylor said. “But we can do hard things, right? And we are at a point that that’s who we have to be, that’s who we have to become and if not, we have got to find somebody who can.”
A&M struggled from the free throw line. The Aggies went 9-for-22 from the free throw line, with the two leading scorers in Barker and junior guard Sahara Jones going 3-for-11 and 2-for-5, respectively.
“As a team, that’s one thing that we struggle with during games,” Barker said. “And it’s crazy because we practice free throws a lot … For me to go out there and be 3-for-11 from the free throw line, I’m just really disappointed in myself in particular. My hands get clammy, and they get a little wet, so I’m going to blame it on that.”
A bright spot was A&M’s defense, which did force 26 turnovers in the game but only translated that into 25 points.
“We turned it over, we didn’t convert on all those turnovers at times,” Taylor said. “And then we gave up however many offensive rebounds, 22 offensive rebounds to a team we have a huge size advantage against? That’s not OK. We always have some team goals when we come out and play, there were several areas where we didn’t meet our team goals and we should have. They have to understand that it’s not acceptable to not do that.”
The Aggies will be back in action on Wednesday, Nov. 23, at 4 p.m., in Reed Arena against the Texas State Bobcats.
For more information on A&M women’s basketball, visit 12thman.com or find the team on Twitter and Instagram @aggiewbb.