Aggie Women’s Basketball Dominates Oklahoma Baptist, 89-38

WTAW 1620 Aggie Basketball

By: Neomi Brown, Athletics Communications

BRYAN-COLLEGE STATION, Texas – The No. 23 Texas A&M women’s basketball team triumphed over Oklahoma Baptist by an 89-38 margin in its exhibition match Wednesday night inside Reed Arena.

Jada Malone led the Aggies with 14 points while shooting 66.7% from the field. Kayla Wells (12), Sahara Jones (11) and Jordan Nixon (10) each surpassed the double-digit mark in scoring to lift the A&M offense. Aaliyah Patty dominated the glass, grabbing 10 boards to lead the team. Jordan Nixon and McKinzie Green orchestrated the A&M attack, dishing six and five assists, respectively. On the defensive end, Patty totaled four blocks and Qadashah Hoppie, Green and Malone came away with two steals each.

Thirteen different players scored for the Aggies, shooting at 43.4% as a team. The Maroon & White dominated the game physically, winning the rebounding margin 61-40 while outscoring the Bison 56-8 in the paint. A&M capitalized on the Bison mistakes, forcing 19 OBU turnovers and scoring 25 points off those exchanges. Texas A&M never trailed and only allowed the Bison to shoot 17.9% from the field and net 10 field goals.

Texas A&M got out to a 6-0 lead early on, holding the Bison to 0-12 from the field. Through the first quarter, A&M blanked Oklahoma Baptist and ran up a 20-0 advantage. The Aggie defense’s shutout in the first quarter was the fewest points allowed by an A&M defense since holding Mississippi State to three points in the first quarter on Jan. 17 of last season. The Bison settled into an offensive rhythm at the start of the second period, but Texas A&M continued to lead by a 19-point margin. A six-point flurry from Wells afforded the Aggies a 23-point lead at the halftime break, 41-18.

Nixon came alive offensively at the start of the second half, drilling two 3-point baskets and finding Roby for an assist which led to a 57-22 advantage with 4:24 remaining in the third quarter. Bolstered by a 24-2 scoring run, the Aggies maintained a 68-24 lead heading into the final period of play. Jones stuffed the stat sheet with six points and four rebounds in the fourth quarter, paving the way for an 89-38 result.

UP NEXT
The No. 23 Texas A&M women’s basketball team opens the 2021-22 season on Tuesday, Nov. 9 at 7 p.m. inside Reed Arena, as the Aggies welcome the Texas A&M-Corpus Christi Islanders.

POSTGAME QUOTES
TEXAS A&M QUOTES
Head Coach Gary Blair
Opening Statement…
“I thought that in the first half, the other team was a little nervous and missed some wide-open shots that they would normally hit. Give those kids a lot of credit. That team is very improved, and they will be able to create better off the dribble going forward. Tonight, they didn’t hit their outside shots, and we didn’t hit our outside shots either. Those are all first-game jitters, and I believe that we will do better. I was able to give ten kids double-digit minutes tonight, and that’s what we play exhibition games for. Defensively, when we started running our traps, we were just a second late on a couple of possessions. It is going to take a lot of work against our practice players so we can gain confidence that our pressure will result in turnovers. I liked how we attempted to run in transition, and we were hitting the boards pretty well which gave us those opportunities. This is about what I expected, and we needed to play this game. Now, we have until next Tuesday to clean up our mistakes before we play Texas A&M-Corpus Christi.”

On the challenges presented by Oklahoma Baptist…
“Well, we let them score 18 points in the second quarter because we fouled too much. That’s one thing that I give them (Oklahoma Baptist) credit for – taking the ball to the basket and getting offensive rebounds. We just fouled too much. They had 24 free throw attempts because we were playing arm bar defense instead of moving our feet. We made some adjustments at halftime and cleaned things up a bit.”

Senior guard Kayla Wells
On playing a new opponent for the first time this season…
“I feel like it was another chance to go at a different opponent. We go at each other all the time in practice, and I’m not going to say that it gets boring, but it does get boring. It was fun to come out and compete against someone other than ourselves and our practice players. This is a really good indicator of where we are at as a team, and it gives us things to analyze when we’re watching film.”

On the lessons she learned from the team’s first outing…
“We did a really good job of sharing the ball, but I feel like our execution has a little way to go. I feel like we didn’t have to execute as much because we had a lot of transition opportunities, so when we go up against a really good defensive team, we’re going to have to execute at a high level because transition is not going to be there all of the time.”

Freshman forward Jada Malone
On her first collegiate performance…
“I think I played good personally, and as a team we did really well. I think my role this year is going to be mostly rebounding, playing physical, posting up and doing the things that I know I’m supposed to do. I can definitely be more physical.”

On the importance of rebounding…
“The goal in every game is to win the rebounding battle. Winning rebounds every single game is something that we take pride in, and we want to have a high rebounding percentage on both the offensive and defensive ends. Our performance tonight will give us a lot of confidence going into the season.”

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