BRYAN-COLLEGE STATION, Texas (AP) – Aaliyah Wilson scored 16 points, including a key basket late, as No. 10 Texas A&M outlasted Rice 57-53 on Sunday.
Nancy Mulkey made two free throws to get the Owls within 1 with less than a minute left. But Wilson made a jumper soon after that to make it 56-53 and Ciera Johnson added a free throw with 3 seconds left to secure the victory.
Jasmine Smith had 18 points to lead Rice (4-1) as the Owls lost for the first time this season.
The win is the eighth straight victory in the series for Texas A&M (8-0).
Coach Gary Blair knows his team wasn’t perfect on Sunday, but he’s thrilled to enter the Christmas break with an perfect record.
”There’s no way I expected us to be undefeated this time of year but I expected us to compete in every game,” Blair said. ”I’m very proud of this basketball team for all we’ve accomplished.”
Wilson was proud of the way the Aggies played down the stretch after falling behind early.
”We still have a lot of things to fix but I think we did a good job of finishing up,” she said.
She believes the key to the win was the the team’s defense after halftime.
”We just have to be strong defensively to finish the plays… we’ve got to be able lock in and stay locked in,” she said.
Texas A&M was up by 8 after two free throws by Johnson with about 6 1/2 minutes left in the fourth quarter. India Bellamy scored the next five points for the Owls to get them within 50-47 a couple of minutes later.
The Owls used a 4-0 run to cut the lead to 52-51 with less than 1 1/2 minutes to go. Kayla Wells made a layup for the Aggies to extend the lead to 3 with about a minute left.
Rice led 28-24 at halftime after Smith scored 11 points in the first half.
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POSTGAME NOTES
RECORDS & SERIES NOTES
- Following the 57-53 result, Texas A&M climbs to 8-0 on the season, its best starting record since the 2014-15 campaign. Rice falls to 4-1 in the defeat.
- In the all-time series between the two programs, Texas A&M rises to 35-10 with a 20-3 mark in the Aggieland. The Aggies have won each of the last seven meetings.
- A&M’s non-conference excellence continued on Sunday, as the Aggies extended their non-conference win streak to 13-consecutive games.
TEAM NOTES
- The game remained close through the first half, but a 7-0 run sparked by an Aaliyah Wilson mid-range jumper at the 3:55 mark of the third quarter saw the Aggies gain control, 39-33.
- An Alexis Morris buzzer-beating three-point basket at the end of the third quarter electrified the Reed Arena crowd and put A&M up by eight, 44-36.
- The final two minutes of action were hotly contested on both ends of the floor, but Ciera Johnson sank a clutch free throw with 3.9 seconds remaining to put the Aggies up by four to seal the victory.
- The Aggies won the turnover battle for the fifth time this season, forcing 19 while committing only 13.
- The Maroon & White overcame a seven-point deficit against Rice, tying the largest comeback for the Aggies this season.
- A&M has maintained a 10-point lead or higher in all eight contests this season.
- Texas A&M started its eighth consecutive game with a lineup of Aaliyah Wilson, Jordan Nixon, Kayla Wells, N’dea Jones and Ciera Johnson.
INDIVIDUAL NOTES
- Alexis Morris lit up the scoreboard on Sunday afternoon, logging a season-high 16 points on a .500 shooting clip, with a season-best six made field goals.
- The Beaumont, Texas, native contributed season highs in rebounds (three), assists (three) and minutes played (26) while managing the Aggie offense off the bench. Her effort as the team’s sparkplug saw her register a team-high plus-14 plus/minus.
- Aaliyah Wilson played a prolific offensive game on Sunday, sinking eight field goals to finish with 16 points on a .400 shooting percentage.
- The Muskogee, Oklahoma, native added six rebounds, two blocks, one steal and an assist in a season-high 39 minutes of game action.
- Ciera Johnson was tasked with guarding Rice’s 6-foot-9 center, Nancy Mulkey, holding her to only 13 points and six rebounds.
- Johnson finished with 10 points and eight rebounds while booking a season-best four steals defending the pick-and-roll.
- N’dea Jones had her sixth outing with double-digit rebounds, hauling in 10 boards to go along with three points, one assist, a steal and a block.
- Kayla Wells excelled in her two-way role against the Owls, notching four points, two rebounds, a block and a steal in 22 minutes played.
- Destiny Pitts contributed greatly off the bench, sinking a timely three pointer while playing consistently on both ends of the floor. The senior guard ended with three points, two rebounds and a steal.
- Women’s Basketball Hall-of-Famer Gary Blair advanced his career record to 821-330 with a 413-167 mark at the helm of the Texas A&M program.
UP NEXT
The No. 10 Aggies take a weeklong hiatus from play to celebrate the holidays before returning to action on Monday, Dec. 28, 2020 in a 7 p.m. matchup against Northwestern State at Reed Arena.
POSTGAME QUOTES
TEXAS A&M QUOTES
Head Coach Gary Blair
Opening Statement…
“It was almost an exact duplicate of the game last year. We played Rice at their place. You’ve got to understand, we prepared very well for this team. We prepared well for all the stuff they ran. Sometimes they executed it better than we defended it early in the game, but when it got to 13-6, I think we had a media timeout. From then on, we did a lot of very good things on the defensive end and made them earn a lot of things. Yes, we’re going to get backdoored every now and then or they’re going to get to the free throw line and do what they do, but folks, our schedule this season will help us get through these tough games at the end where we are learning to make good decisions, whether we’re at the free throw line or making a stop on the other end, or run a play right at the end. I thought [Aaliyah] Wilson’s play that we ran coming off the screen, shooting over [Nancy] Mulkey, that was there most of the night with Ciera [Johnson] setting the screen.”
On having a team of experienced players…
“Yes I’ve got a veteran team, but when I take off this hat you see a lot of gray hairs. I’ve got a veteran coaching staff that knows what the heck they’re doing on the little things, whether it’s inbound plays or not giving up on a play or whatever. I love to have veterans on the team. I’m happy for all our servicemen and servicewomen that are veterans as well as myself, but you win with juniors and seniors, and you blend in everything else to make those decisions down the way. So, I’m just very blessed to have the team that I have right now. We’re on everybody’s schedule, and they want to knock us off. If you’re a top-10 team, a Rice win today would have probably put them in the top 20.”
Senior center Ciera Johnson
On the transition offense in today’s game…
“In first half, we really didn’t run. We were being very slow and methodical. In the second half we came out running and gunning. We were trying to get the ball, push it up the floor. We were jump shot Judy’s as Coach [Gary] Blair would like to say. We were trying to have a more balanced attack coming into the second half, so we tried to hit the ball inside when we could and have an inside-out attack.”
On measuring how well this team has been playing…
“I think right now we’re in the mindset of getting after it every day of practice. When we have a bad practice, you understand that the next time you come to practice you have to go that much harder to get better. You can get better every day but if you don’t get better one day then it will make it worse. So, realize, if you don’t put in 100% that day, then the next day you need to give 100%, and so I think we’re just really focused and everybody’s buying into their roles. I’m saying that everybody signed into their roles and understand what each other is capable of and understand our roles in the game.”
Senior guard Aaliyah Wilson
On what it means as a team to have an undefeated record…
Believe in us, especially given what we’ve faced up to this point. I can say we’ve got eight or nine new players facing the pandemic. Anything could happen, the season could have ended, but we have been able to figure things out. We find a way to keep winning, find a way to keep getting better each day. So, I think that speaks to how we are as a team and as a program. That’s how we’ve been able to build and finish strong before the break. So, it feels good to go into the break with an 8-0 record.”
On what was said to the team after the second quarter…
“Coach [Bob] Starkey started to talk to us, and he told us, we know it’s going to be a tough game. Rice is a really good team. They’re really smart as well. You know, they’re going to run what they want to run. We just have to be strong defensively to finish the plays. Just be able to make those small plays. They’re going to run us down. We just have to be able to lock in and stay locked in until the game is over. Obviously, we were able to make more plays than them.”
Story courtesy of Texas A&M Athletics