WBB: Aggies fall to LSU in SEC quarterfinals, 71-65

Little Rock, Ark. – Last Sunday, the Texas A&M women’s basketball team fell behind early in Baton Rouge and couldn’t overcome the early hole, losing to LSU by 17 in their regular season finale.

On Friday in the SEC Tournament quarterfinals, the fifth-seeded Aggies once again let the fourth-seeded Tigers open up a large early lead, but nearly pulled off the comeback before ultimately falling 71-65 in front of 4,630 women's basketball fans at the Verizon Arena.

Courtney Williams led the Aggies with 19 points, seven rebounds and six assists and Curtyce Knox added 12 more for A&M in the losing effort.

“When you get down 22-4, that’s like being down 28-0 in football,” said A&M head coach Gary Blair. “For the first time in 10 years, we aren’t in a [conference tournament] semifinal.”

Much like the contest in Baton Rouge last Sunday, the Tigers started hot from the floor by hitting on eight of their first nine shots including a pair of back-to-back three pointers from guard DaShawn Harden. Meanwhile, the Aggies could not buy a basket, going just 2-of-18 to start the game which allowed LSU to take a 24-5 lead midway through the first.

LSU’s Danielle Ballard led the charge for the Tigers over that stretch, scoring eight points over the game’s first six minutes. In total, the first team All-SEC guard scored a game high 22 and added 10 rebounds and a pair of assists to go with it.

“LSU has turned into a very good ball club late in the year, and a lot of it’s because of Ballard,” said Blair. “There is not a guard in our league that goes to the boards as well as she does. She just wills her way in there.”

Though they dug a massive hole early, the Aggies managed to begin the climb back into the game during the final 10 minutes of the first half and went to the locker room down 44-31 after a late run cut the LSU lead from 17 down to 13.

In the second half, A&M continued the comeback, slowly but surely chipping away at the Tigers’ advantage. Point by point, the Aggies narrowed the margin until Williams hit a jumper with 1:36 remaining to make it a one possession game at 63-60.

After a timeout, A&M showed press and forced an LSU turnover to regain possession. However, Knox passed up a three and instead drove the baseline for a contested layup with 1:26 remaining, resulting in an LSU rebound and a subsequent layup that pushed the Tigers’ lead back to five.

“She passed up the three, she didn’t feel confident,” said Blair. “The drive was not a good shot at all. She didn’t have a good look. But give the kid credit, for what she’s had to go through in this last week, she’s having to put on her big-girl shoes. She’s growing and getting better.”

The Aggies were then forced to foul and LSU proceeded to knock down six free throws in the game’s final 43 seconds to secure the win.

A&M was nearly able to complete the comeback, but time and time again it seemed the Tigers made the right plays to keep momentum from fully swinging the Aggies’ way. Whether it was a loose ball the Tigers pounced on or a timely defensive possession that forced a bad shot at the end of A&M’s shot clock, LSU was able to make the plays throughout the second half that elongated the comeback enough to pick up the victory.

“A&M kept fighting and fighting,” said LSU head coach Nikki Caldwell. “The momentum was going their way, but we made a charge of our own and were able to finish out the game through our defensive pressure. We also made our free throws down the stretch.”


Having bowed out of the conference tournament, the Aggies are now one loss away from ending the season and will almost assuredly be playing on the road for the first two rounds of the NCAA Tournament for the first time since the national title run in 2011. A&M will find out their NCAA fate on Monday, March 16th.

“Our job now is to get better as a basketball team,” said Blair. “We lost three straight times to Baylor in 2011 but we got hot in the tournament because a lot of different people stepped up. Why not again? That’s what I’ll be trying to get these kids to believe in. We’ll just keep working.”