Chelsea Jennings' career night leads No. 15 A&M to 81-58 victory over Ole Miss

On Tuesday, Texas A&M women’s basketball head coach Gary Blair said there was no way his team would overlook Ole Miss before meeting second-ranked South Carolina on Sunday after the way they performed the past two games.

He was more than correct.

Behind a career-high 29 points from Chelsea Jennings and 17 points and nine rebounds from Courtney Walker, the 15th-ranked Aggies trounced the visiting Ole Miss Rebels 81-58 at Reed Arena on Thursday night. The victory puts A&M at 13-4 on the season and 3-1 in the SEC and moves Ole Miss to 9-8 overall and 1-3 in conference play.

“We played good,” said Blair. “We got off to a good start and shot 62%, 68% in the second half. We were getting good looks and making the extra pass.”

With Courtney Williams out for the second straight game with a back injury, senior Chelsea Jennings drew the start in her place and immediately showed why she is one of the most valuable bench players in the league.

Jennings did it all in the first quarter as she showed her ability to hit from mid-range and her ability to slash to the hoop and score inside. Just 5:33 into the game, she hit on a layup under the basket which put her into double figures and gave her – yes, her – a one-point lead over the Rebels. As a team, A&M led 17-9 after the bucket.

In total, Jennings went 12-of-15 from the floor and 5-of-6 from the free throw line in the first 20+ point game of her career.

“I just want to thank my teammates,” said Jennings. “They found me when I was open and I knew a lot of the attention would be on Courtney Walker. That left me with open looks and I was lucky enough to knock them down.”

If Jennings was the story of the first quarter, A&M’s defensive performance was the story of the second.

Allowing just six points in the period, the Aggies stretched their lead to 22 as they a 40-18 advantage into the halftime break. Over the quarter, the Rebels went just 2-of-9 (22%) from the floor and turned the ball over 10 times.

“We didn’t have the bad second quarter like we’ve had before,” said Blair. “This was an 18-6 quarter. We’re starting to put this on our goal board, anytime we hold someone to single digits in a quarter. We’re trying to get one of those a ball game.”

With the game in hand, Blair used most of the fourth quarter to experiment with different lineups and to give his bench some extra in-conference experience. Of note, senior center Rachel Mitchell turned in a solid performance, registering six points, five rebounds and four blocks in 17 minutes of action. Those four blocks gave Mitchell 93 for her career and moved her into seventh place on A&M’s career blocks list.

“Rachel played pretty well in there,” said Blair. “She was pretty active. Sometimes I just have to let her go.”

Although the Rebels actually outscored the A&M bench 19 to 18, the Aggies dominated Ole Miss in points off turnovers (27 to 15), points in the paint (34 to 20) and fast break points (12 to 6). Additionally, A&M won the battle of the boards 36 to 24 and outshot the Rebels 62% to 37%.

With two straight wins against lesser foes in their pocket, the Aggies now turn their attention towards their toughest test of the season in the second-ranked South Carolina Gamecocks. If A&M want to pull the upset in Columbia on Sunday afternoon, it’ll take a complete performance from the entire team. Jennings believes they are up to the task.

“We’ve got our post-game meeting after this and then we have to move on to South Carolina,” said Jennings. “Today was a great win, but we have to focus on what’s next because every game in the SEC is going to be a great game.”