Gary Blair
Jones & Gilbert
Tom Collen
Texas A&M Women's Basketball
Matt Sachs, TexAgs
Jordan Jones had a fantastic night, setting new career highs in points (19) and rebounds (10) on her way to the third triple-double in school history.
Matt Sachs, TexAgs
A&M seniors Kristen Grant (left), Cristina Sanchez-Quintanar (middle) and Karla Gilbert (right) were honored before Thursday's game.
Matt Sachs, TexAgs
Courtney Williams scored 18 and had eight rebounds in Thursday's victory.
WBB: Jones registers triple-double as Ags beat Hogs on senior night
Before the final home game of every season, the seniors on a team’s roster are celebrated and recognized for their time and dedication given to the program.
However on Thursday night, it was A&M sophomore Jordan Jones whose performance deserved celebration.
Behind Jones’ 19 point, 10 rebound and 10 assist performance, the No. 16 Aggies defeated the Arkansas Razorbacks 77-54 in front of 6,631 fans at Reed Arena. Jones’ triple-double was just the third in school history and the first since Danielle Adams’ 2010 performance against Texas Tech.
Matt Sachs, TexAgs
Jordan Jones had a fantastic night, setting new career highs in points (19) and rebounds (10) on her way to the third triple-double in school history.
“This team goes as Jordan Jones goes,” said A&M head coach Gary Blair. “She’s our leader, she’s our captain, and she has to be our catalyst.”
And a catalyst she was.
From A&M’s first possession of the night in which she nailed a three-pointer, to her final rebound with just over three minutes left in the game, Jones controlled the court all evening.
In her 37 minutes of action, the DeSoto product went 7-of-8 from the floor, including a surprising 4-of-5 from behind the arc. Coming into Thursday’s contest, Jones had hit just eight threes all season and was shooting the deep ball at a 17% clip.
“One of the reasons we went zone is that they don’t shoot the three very well,” said Arkansas head coach Tom Collen. “[Jones] was a difference maker against our game plan.”
Although Jones unquestionably had the best night of all the A&M players, she wasn’t the only Aggie hot from the floor against the Razorbacks (18-10, 5-10). In fact, A&M (22-7, 12-3) scored on nine of their first 10 possessions of the game to take a commanding 19-7 lead with just over six minutes gone.
During that stretch, A&M guard Tori Scott hit on back-to-back jumpers and also hit a free throw to help the Aggies grow their early advantage. Scott, who got the start against the smaller Arkansas lineup, finished the night with nine points and four rebounds.
Scott also drew the assignment of guarding Arkansas’ leading scorer Jessica Jackson and did a phenomenal job at that as well. Jackson came into the contest averaging over sixteen points a game, but was held to 1-of-12 shooting and just nine total points.
Blair applauded both Scott and assistant coach Bob Starkey for the defensive performance.
Matt Sachs, TexAgs
A&M seniors Kristen Grant (left), Cristina Sanchez-Quintanar (middle) and Karla Gilbert (right) were honored before Thursday's game.
“Give a lot of credit to Starkey,” said Blair. “His defense was outstanding in this game. We decided to go with a small line-up and start a 5-8 kid (Scott) on a 6-3 kid (Jackson) and it worked. Tori Scott shut her out. They didn’t score on Tori Scott.”
The fact that A&M took an 11-point, 43-32 advantage into the half was not a shock, but perhaps the way they achieved is was. Although Arkansas sits near the bottom of the conference standings, they came into the contest leading the league in total defense. On average, the Razorbacks were giving up just 53.2 points per game.
“We are obviously disappointed with the way we played,” said Collen. “We went into the locker room scoring 32 points, which is actually not that bad for us. The disappointing number was that they had 43 points.”
The second half was more of the same as the Aggies continued to shoot the ball well. A&M used a 12-0 run early in the period to open up a 61-38 lead with 12 minutes left on the clock. During that streak, the Aggies went 6-of-7 from the floor.
A&M finished the game shooting 59% from the field, while holding Arkansas to just 25%.
“We knocked down our shots,” stated A&M senior center Karla Gilbert. “Not only were we hitting layups, but we were hitting jumpers. Knocking those shots down, we set the tempo.”
Matt Sachs, TexAgs
Courtney Williams scored 18 and had eight rebounds in Thursday's victory.
The Aggies’ offensively-efficient performance made sure senior night was a success for graduating members Kristen Grant, Cristina Sanchez-Quintanar and Gilbert. Last year, A&M dropped the season finale to LSU 67-52, spoiling the day for 2013 seniors Kristi Bellock, Adrienne Pratcher and Cierra Windham.
“We knew coming into this game we were playing for our seniors,” Jones stated. “Last year, our seniors didn’t go out the way we wanted. We felt like we let them down. [This time] Coach had that ‘over my dead body’ mentality.”
Jones took that mentality to heart and made it a personal decision to not let it happen again.
“I had to find a way for these three seniors to go out with a win,” said Jones. “I felt like tonight’s performance, I owed it to them. It wasn’t anything special on my part, it’s what they deserved.”
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