Fresh off an electric Saturday night where Aggie fans watched the men’s team take down LSU, the women’s team hoped to capture some of that same energy in Reed Arena as they hosted the Ole Miss Rebels.
A&M was unsuccessful in doing so, as they fell to Ole Miss 57-38, with the same problems that have plagued A&M in the midst of its, now, five-game losing streak persisting in this matchup.
Despite the Aggies’ defense holding every one of their SEC opponents this season to under their points-per-game average, a lack of reliable scoring in the absence of players like freshman forward Janiah Barker, junior guard Sahara Jones and senior forward Sydnee Roby, all of whom are out with injury, continues to be the reason A&M cannot secure its first conference win this season.
“We’ve been struggling to score for the past couple games,” junior guard Kay Kay Green said. “It’s nothing that Ole Miss really did to make us miss shots … The shots we usually hit are not falling, so we’ve just got to get back to the gym and shoot while we’re tired.”
The Aggies started off with 4 quick points from sophomore forward Jada Malone before quickly falling behind 13-4 in the first, but a 9-2 run fueled by a 3-pointer from freshman guard Sydney Bowles and two jumpers from Green cut the Rebel’s lead to 2 going into the second.
Graduate forward Aaliyah Patty kept A&M’s foot on the gas with 4 points early in the second to give the Aggies the 19-17 lead. From that point, however, it was all Ole Miss. The Rebels staunch defense forced five turnovers, turning those into 10 points to help Ole Miss end the quarter on a 19-2 run.
The fatigue caught up to the Aggies in the final quarter, as the Rebels fast-paced offense, paired with their pressure defense finally broke a depleted A&M squad. The Aggies brought the lead down to 10 early in the quarter, but could never cut it to single digits. Ole Miss finished on a 11-2 run to give them the comfortable victory against A&M.
“We ran out of gas,” coach Joni Taylor said. “We’ve got to have some resiliency at that point. We’ve got to bow our back and fight through it a little bit. We put so much pressure on every single shot, and then when it doesn’t go in, it’s just a let down. And that let down leads to not doing what we’re supposed to do on the defensive end.”
The Aggie’s offense could not get into any rhythm throughout the game, as A&M committed a season-high 24 turnovers, including four shot-clock violations, which led to 25 Ole Miss points. This, paired with long stretches by the Aggies without a field goal, proved fatal for A&M.
“[Ole Miss had] 36 at halftime, and 31 of those points are off of their transition and off of our turnovers,” Taylor said. “I think they had 21 points off of our turnovers and 15 in transition. That’s their plan A and we gave it to them.”
A&M continues its SEC gauntlet, still in search of its first conference victory, at home on Thursday, Dec. 8, as they take on the Tennessee Lady Volunteers at 8 p.m.