COLLEGE STATION- No. 17 Texas A&M clinched its 13th straight 20+ win season, defeating Florida 85-80 in a women’s basketball game at Reed Arena Thursday.
The Aggies (20-7, 9-4 SEC) have won at least 20 games in every season since 2005-06, and has the ninth-longest active streak of 20+ win seasons. It marks head coach Gary Blair‘s 27th straight 20+ win campaign, which ranks seventh among active coaches.
Chennedy Carter led the Aggies with 28 points, helping the Aggies battle back from a 43-37 halftime deficit. Carter took control of the game late in the fourth quarter, hitting a jumper and a 3-pointer on back-to-back possessions, extending A&M’s lead to six with 1:01 to play.
Anriel Howard had 21 points and 12 rebounds for the Aggies, marking her fourth 20+ point, 10+ rebound game of the season. Danni Williams added 15 points and five assists, and Jasmine Lumpkin chipped in 10 points.
Florida (10-16, 2-11) was led by Funda Nakkasoglu, who had 24 points and Haley Lorenzen, who scored 22.
Texas A&M made 20 of their 24 free throws in the game, including a clutch 16-of-17 mark in the second half.
The game was Texas A&M’s 12th Annual BTHO Breast Cancer game, which has raised over $175,000 over the past 11 years for breast cancer support and research. The Aggies are 11-1 all-time in the BTHO Breast Cancer Game.
The Aggies return to action on Sunday, February 18 at No. 2 Mississippi State at 4 p.m., with television coverage on ESPN2. Texas A&M’s final home game is February 25 at 3 p.m. against No. 13 Missouri.
Notes
Texas A&M
- The Aggies improve to 20-7 on the season and 9-4 in SEC play. Florida is 10-16 overall and 2-11 in SEC play
- This clinches Texas A&M’s 13th straight 20+ win season, which is the ninth-longest active streak of 20+ win seasons in Division I
- Texas A&M is 14-3 at home this season and 68-13 at home since the start of the 2013-14 season
- The Aggies are 159-6 against unranked teams at home since February 2005
- The Aggies are 11-1 all-time in the BTHO Breast Cancer game
- Texas A&M head coach Gary Blair is 351-148 in 15 seasons at Texas A&M and 759-310 in his Hall of Fame career, which ranks 8thamong active coaches in career wins
- Her 28 points ties for the sixth-most by a Texas A&M freshman in a single game. She has seven of the top eight single-game scoring marks for a freshman
- Moved past Khaalia Hillsman (2016-17, 556 points), Lisa Branch (1995-96, 557), Danni Williams (2016-17, 563) and Courtney Walker(2013-14, 563) into seventh on Texas A&M’s single-season points list with 574. She already has Texas A&M’s freshman season record for points
- Scored 20+ points for the ninth time in the past 11 games and the 16th time this season
- Scored in double figures for the 26th time in 27 games this season
- Had her fifth career 20+ point, 10+ rebound game and her fourth such game of the season
- Posted her 27th career double-double, extending her Texas A&M career record. It is her 14th double-double of the season.
- Tied Kelsey Bone (2012-13, 326) for third on the Texas A&M single-season rebound list with 326, moving past Danielle Adams (2010-11, 324) in the game
- Scored in double figures for the 16th time this season and the 36th time in her career
- Had 10+ rebounds for the 23rd time this season and the 51st time in her career
- Moved into a tie for seventh on Texas A&M’s single-season 3-pointers made list with 54, tying Lisa Branch (1994-95, 54)
- Scored 10+ points for the 22nd time this season and the 52nd time in her career
- Scored 10+ points for the eighth time this season and the 15th time in her Texas A&M career
POSTGAME QUOTES
Texas A&M Head Coach Gary Blair
Opening Statement…
“Well first I’d like to commend Cameron Newbauer and Florida. We were their sixth straight top-25 team and they have been in almost every game. They are a very good offensive team, similar to Vanderbilt. They ran some stuff, shot three-pointers well and rebounded with us. You have to give them credit. When you can win a ball game and not play your best, it says a lot for a team. We cut a six point lead down to one at the end of the third quarter and that gave us a lot of confidence. This is one of her best games overall. Chennedy Carter and Danni Williams were just doing their thing. They are two of the best in the league and country. Jasmine Lumpkin shot double figures tonight. I had Carter, Lumpkin and Williams playing forty minutes again. I was pleased with the outcome but was not pleased with the defense. Give Florida credit because they were running their stuff very well. It would have been a let down to lose in front of breast cancer survivors and the students who came out. I just admire them for coming and I know it is hard to draw people out to any sport here at Texas A&M on a Thursday night. However, we kept them entertained. I thought we did some good things offensively.”
On being able to see poise from team…
“The poise was good. I am tired of being Revered Blair at halftime but sometimes this is what the team responses to. We had two bad practices leading up to this and they are not a light switch; you can’t just turn them on at 7 o’clock in the morning. When you prepare to win you find a way. We made some key play down the stretch and give us credit we only turned it over six times. We just have to take care of business and go forward 4-0 some way.”
On if winning this game will give momentum against Mississippi State…
“It makes that team want to come see me and practice a little more because I don’t think they would have wanted to see me or the coaching staff if we couldn’t have pulled it off. It was tough. We were one coach short tonight but we stepped up to the plate and played well.”
Texas A&M Freshman Guard Chennedy Carter
On what made Florida’s Funda Nakkasoglu so hard to guard tonight…
“She’s a great player. She’s a great three-point shooter. She can shoot with hands in her face. There was nothing we could do to stop her. She can put it on the floor too; she can do both. She was a little hard to guard tonight but we took it as a team. We played together as a team to stop her. It wasn’t an individual effort, it was all of us.”
On what was working well for her tonight…
“I just took what the defense was giving me. I was knocking down shots the whole fourth quarter and I felt pretty confident. My teammates kept the confidence in me. My coach told me to shoot if I was open. At the end I was able to come off and feed a teammate which was a bigger play than hitting shots myself.”
On the message from Coach Blair coming into the second half…
“We just have to play harder. We just have to fight. There are people out there with breast cancer that are out here supporting us who are fighting right now. Coach was in the locker room telling us that we have to fight for them because they’re fighting for their life right now. We came out and tried to play hard, play tougher and give people a chance to come out and watch basketball and have fun tonight.”
Florida Head Coach Cameron Newbauer
Opening statement…
“To be able to compete in the SEC and play for Kay and breast cancer awareness was great. I appreciate all the pink here tonight at A&M. There was great support and awareness for such an awful disease. I appreciate the fact that all the people showed up tonight; It’s a great thing. The game was a stinker. I am so proud of our kids for coming here and putting up the fight that we did. We played six top-25 teams in a row and have been in every game. We played our guts out tonight. Hats off to Carter. She stepped up and made big big plays when they had to. They had 24 attempts from the free throw line. That’s what they had to do and that’s what they do so well. We wanted to keep them off the free throw line but they just pounded inside and offensively rebounded it. That’s what we want to take away, points in the paint. 36 points in the paint is the difference in the game. Hats off to them but our bunch played so hard and did so many things so well. I couldn’t be more proud of our team. I love this group because of how hard they play and the fight they display every single day.”
On setting the season three-point shooting record in just 26 games…
“I think last year we hit maybe 110 three-pointers as a team. Our players spend a lot of extra time in the gym working on their game, keeping their eyes on the rim and shooting with confidence. That’s how that happened tonight. The bright lights only reveal your work in the dark. There’s been a lot of work in the dark from our team to put us in this situation and these opportunities to play with these top-20 teams.”
On turnovers in the beginning of the fourth quarter…
“We got a little sped up in that moment. We had a combination that’s never really played together much with Delicia Washington not being in the game. That really threw us off. We’re more than capable in that moment but it jumped us quickly and we got a little flustered. Even with that we fought right back. That’s part of the game. You have to play through those mistakes and I think we did. It happened and we didn’t let the wheels fall off. We fought back and still had a chance. I wouldn’t say that was the decider of the game.”
Story courtesy of Texas A&M Athletics