COLLEGE STATION – The No. 6 Texas A&M Aggies gobbled up the Prairie View A&M Panthers on the night before Thanksgiving, beating them by a score of 80-38 at Reed Arena. Junior guard Chennedy Carter led the way with 20 points, and junior forward N’dea Jones set a new career high, adding 16 points.
The Aggies got off to a hot start, taking a 21-4 lead within the first five minutes of the game, while shooting 8-12 from the field and 5-5 from the free throw line. Between the first and second quarter, A&M kept Prairie View from scoring for 9:37, while scoring 24 unanswered points.
The second half was more of the same. A&M kept up the pace with an 11-0 run to start, and shot 77% from the field in the third quarter, allowing the Aggies to run away with a victory.
TEAM NOTES
- The Aggies set a new season high in steals with 12.
- Texas A&M was able to force 25 turnovers and scored 32 points off turnovers, both of which were season highs.
- The Aggies recorded their 21st straight win against Prairie View, making their series lead 22-2.
- Texas A&M utilized their bench, seeing a season high 25 points from their reserves.
- The Aggies’ 80 points against Prairie View were the most points in a game this season, and the most since scoring 80 against Notre Dame in the Sweet Sixteen last season.
- Texas A&M held the lead throughout the entire game, and never got outscored in a quarter.
- Texas A&M used a staring lineup of Chennedy Carter, Shambria Washington, Kayla Wells, N’dea Jones and Ciera Johnson for the fifth time this season.
INDIVIDUAL NOTES
- Junior guard Chennedy Carter led the Aggies with 20 points, surpassing the 20-point mark for the fourth straight game.
- Carter extended her double-figure scoring streak to 44 games and is now seven points away from breaking into the top five on A&M’s all-time career scoring list.
- Junior forward N’dea Jones was a scoring machine, setting a career high in points with 16. She also matched her career high in steals with three.
- Senior guard Jasmine Williams had a career night, setting a personal best in points with eight and rebounds with six.
- Freshman guard McKinzie Green played the most minutes in her career, helping to lead the Aggies in assists and steals.
- Junior guard Aahliyah Jackson scored her first points this year, hitting a jump shot in the paint in the fourth quarter.
- Head coach Gary Blair earned the 796th victory of his career after topping Prairie View.
UP NEXT
The Aggies will travel to Fort Worth to take on No. 12 Florida State on Sunday, Dec. 1 at 7 p.m. for the Maggie Dixon Classic. This will be the first ranked opponent that A&M will play this season.
POSTGAME QUOTES
Head Coach Gary Blair
On N’dea Jones’ performance…
“Look at what she did and the limited amount of minutes that she had. You have to give her a lot of credit. She was four out of seven at halftime.”
On plans for the next match up against Florida State…
“We’re going to take tomorrow off, come back on Friday and get ready for the best team that we’ve played this tear and that’s Florida State.”
On McKinzie Green’s future…
“She’s getting better and she takes coaching. That last turnover that Jasmine [Williams] happened to take, she got to come demand the ball and that’s what a freshman is. That’s the same way Jordan Jones was and a lot of them were, she’ll get better and that’s what we have to do.”
Senior Guard Jasmine Williams
On the takeaways from the bench players…
“I think our main focus as non-starters was to get in and improve on ourselves. To get some quality minutes against a quality opponent and show that we can keep up. We wanted to not maintain but extend the lead and keep the continuity in substitutions. I think we did that well. We had some drop offs at times, as subs. However, with time comes experience.”
On using her experience as an asset to prepare for what’s ahead…
“Unfortunately with the game of basketball, there’s going to be foul trouble, and there’s going to be situations. You never know what happens with the team in the course of a season. So getting us minutes like this prepares us in the long run. It’s going to take all 11 of us to do what we need to do this year.”
Junior Forward N’dea Jones
On takeaways from the game…
“I think this game was to focus on ourselves. We were worried about them. We just had the mindset to go out there and play against us every time, no matter who we play. So everybody was just really focusing on themselves, and as you can see, we subbed in a lot. We used the time to get ready for other teams and running our offense better. Our defense pressed a lot, so we were working on our defense a lot. All in all, we were worried about them, but I think we are more concerned about us.”
On bouncing back from injury…
“I’ve been doing a lot better and trying to push through. Some days I could be kind of sore, but it’s all a mentality-type thing. So I just go out there and make sure I have energy. I usually try to focus on the first five minutes of the game, going out there and being all over the place.”
Story courtesy of Texas A&M Athletics