WBB: A&M moves to 6-2 with 74-68 victory over Washington

During finals week, most college kids have a ‘do whatever it takes to pass’ mentality.

And although Saturday’s contest won’t affect the GPA of the student-athletes involved, that idea still held true.

On Saturday night, the No. 23 Texas A&M women’s basketball team defeated the Washington Huskies 74-68 in front of 4,169 fans who braved the cold to get to Reed Arena.  With the result, A&M moves to 6-2 on the year while the Huskies fall to 2-3 this season.

Karla Gilbert registered 11 points and 15 rebounds, and Courtney Williams added 13 points and six boards to lead the Aggies.

“I told the kids before the game that this was a final exam,” stated A&M head coach Gary Blair. “I told them I would give them a grade, either an A,B,C or D. I’ll give us a C, and that’s all. We won.”

Thanks in part to eight early turnovers, A&M found themselves down by as many as seven points with just under 10 minutes remaining in the first half. But once the Aggies stopped giving it over to the Huskies, something they didn’t do for the remainder of the half, they proceeded to use a 26-11 run to take a 36-28 lead into the locker room.

“We started pressuring the basketball,” said A&M point guard Jordan Jones in reference to what changed in the latter part of the first half. “We came out timid and went away from what we did in practice, but once we settled in and got into our defensive game plan, they gave us the ability to run in transition and we took advantage.”

The hot streak continued at the beginning of the second half as A&M used another run of 10-0 to grow their advantage to 19.

At that point, it looked as if the Aggies would run the Huskies out of the gym on their way to their sixth victory of the season.

But Washington wouldn’t go down lightly, using an 18-2 run to bring the score to 49-46 in favor of A&M with 11:25 left to play. During that stretch, Huskies forward Talia Walton scored eight straight over the course of a minute and a half to lead the charge.

“I thought we were about to pull away, but we couldn’t do it,” said Blair. “They hit at least four shots in a row and I probably should have used my timeout, but I thought we were OK. I second guessed myself and they hit four in a row while we were in the process of turning it over or missing dead on shots.”

With the game once again a one possession affair at 55-52 with 9:10 remaining, Williams came up big, hitting on back-to-back three pointers to push the A&M lead back out to nine points.

The Huskies would cut it down to as little as four on two more occasions in the final six minutes, but relatively strong free throw shooting down the stretch (7-of-10) allowed the Aggies to hold on for the victory.

The next test for the Aggies comes next Sunday, and it’s a big one. A&M will travel to State College, Penn. to take on the No. 10 Penn State Lady Lions, a team they lost to 63-58 in College Station last season.