WBB: No. 9 A&M comes from behind to defeat LSU 55-48

It was a tale of two halves at Reed Arena on Sunday afternoon.

In one, you had the ninth-ranked Texas A&M women’s basketball team play listlessly and score the least amount of points of any half all season. In the other, you had high energy and a come-from-behind effort that allowed the Aggies to escape from the visiting LSU Tigers.

Behind 12 points and eight assists from junior Jordan Jones and nine points and 13 rebounds from senior Achiri Ade, A&M erased a six-point second half deficit and beat the Tigers 55-48 in front of 4,763 fans at Reed Arena on Sunday. With the victory, the Aggies move to 15-3 on the year and 3-1 in SEC play, while LSU falls to 8-8 overall and 2-2 in conference.

“I don’t like to coach that hard, but when you’re getting zero execution in the first half it’s frustrating,” said A&M head coach Gary Blair. “I think our kids responded. There were no Xs and Os on the boards at halftime, there were no set plays, no nothing. I wanted to find out who would compete and press for 20 minutes. When you don’t have your good game, and we had no game, you have to find a way to win.”

After building a quick 6-0 lead right out of the gate, it appeared A&M was going to be able to blow past the Tigers with relative ease. But things quickly changed and the Aggies went cold, allowing LSU to take a seven-point, 25-18 lead into the locker room at the half.

Taking away A&M’s opening three baskets that gave them the early lead, the Aggies shot just 6-of-24 (25%) from the floor over the half’s final 17 minutes. That poor shooting effort, combined with 10 turnovers, led the average viewer to believe that the Aggies were well on their way to their second loss in as many games.

“At the end of the half, we should have given everybody their money back,” said Blair. “But they stayed with us and we found a way in the second half.”

Jones scored A&M’s first five points of the second period and sophomore Curtyce Knox added the Aggies’ next six off the bench on a pair of three pointers to cut the LSU lead down to two. Knox, usually Jones’ backup, commented on both point guards being on the floor at the same time early in the second half.

“It’s good for us to have two ball handlers in the game,” Knox said. “Two passers, two three point shooters and two very good defensive players gives the other team a very hard time on offense.”

Then, with 11:41 left in the game and down six, Courtney Walker hit a jumper that sparked a 16-4 Aggie run that eventually gave A&M a 47-41 lead with 5:51 remaining on the clock. During that stretch, A&M’s amped up energy on defense forced eight turnovers and held the Tigers to just 1-of-8 shooting.

“I thought A&M did a nice job of picking up their defensive intensity [in the second half],” said LSU head coach Nikki Caldwell. “They really pushed tempo in the second half and tried to get some transition baskets. They were able to capitalize off of some of our turnovers. There was definitely a swing in energy.”

The Aggies were unable to push their lead to more than six and didn’t truly put away the Tigers until a steal by Ade with 26 seconds remaining led to a run-out layup by Knox to put A&M up four at 52-48.

“There was a lot going on,” said Ade of the steal. “I had just been beat on a screen from [Danielle Ballard] so my main focus was to get back help out on her and it caused a deflection and the steal.”

A&M then hit three free throws in the game’s final seconds to put the contest on ice and picked up their third conference win of the year. More importantly, the Aggies ‘held serve’ and stayed undefeated at home in SEC play.

“We cannot afford to lose one single game at home due to the strength of this league,” said Blair. “Give me energy and guard play. If I have to play a game without my bigs until they get better, I’ll do it.”

After battling the effects of the physical grind that was playing five games in 13 days, the Aggies now get a full week off before battling Ole Miss at Reed Arena next Sunday. According to Blair, the break is much needed and comes at a good time.

“Hopefully our team will find it by next Sunday,” said Blair. “We’ve got another week with no classes whatsoever and our kids are tired and they need some rest. We need to go to the movies, we need to do a lot of things. But we need to get better before Ole Miss rolls in here next Sunday.”