Aggies Lose Second Straight SEC Road Game
The No. 25 Texas A&M Aggies lost their second straight Southeastern Conference women’s basketball game Thursday night, falling to No. 7 Tennessee, 73-45, in Knoxville, Tennessee.
The Lady Volunteers (14-1, 3-0 in SEC) overcame a slow start in the first quarter and went on a 15-2 run in the second quarter to pull away from the Aggies (10-4, 0-2). Tennessee held the Aggies to a season-low 45 points.
The Aggies not only lost their second straight game in SEC play, they lost for the third time in four games, dating back to a Dec. 12 road loss to TCU.
Tennessee’s only loss this season is to defending national champion Stanford. The Lady Vols have now beaten three ranked teams.
Jordan Horston had a double-double for Tennessee by the end of the third quarter and finished the game with 18 points and 13 rebounds. Tamari Key scored nine points and dominated the paint with 11 blocked shots, one off the Tennessee record for a single game.
Destiny Pitts led the Aggies with 12 points, while Kayla Wells scored 11 points and Qadashah Hopped added 10 points.
Aggies guard Jordan Nixon scored just three points, and that underscores a trend for the Aggies. When they win, Nixon scores 15.3 points per game. When the Aggies lose, Nixon scores 9.7 points per game.
This was a game billed as one of contrasts. The Aggies entered the game with the best 3-point shooting percentage in the country (42 percent), with four players shooting better than 40 percent from the arc. The Aggies also welcomed back 6-foot-6 forward Aaliyah Patty back to the lineup after she missed the previous game against LSU.
The Aggies shot just 28.6 percent (4 of 14) from the arc and Patty came off the bench to grab six rebounds but didn’t score a point.
The Lady Vols, meanwhile, entered the game as the nation’s best team in field-goal defense (30.2 percent) and No. 1 in rebounds per game (50.4).
Tennessee held the Aggies to 25.8 percent shooting and outrebounded the Aggies 56-39.
Tennessee shrugged off a slow start to take a 42-28 lead at halftime. The Aggies came out firing and shot 57.1 percent in the first quarter, but only had a one-point lead after a buzzer-beating 3-pointer by the Lady Vols’ Rae Burrell. The Vols surged in the second quarter, outscoring Texas A&M 22-7, as the Aggies shot just 18.8 percent from the floor.
Thursday was the last regular-season meeting between Texas A&M coach Gary Blair, who is retiring at the end of this season, and Tennessee. Before the game, Blair took his players to the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame, which is in Knoxville. The Tennessee coaching staff also presented Blair with a gift before the game.
Texas A&M hosts Florida on Jan. 9 at 2 p.m.
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You can find Matthew Postins on Twitter @PostinsPostcard.
