WBB: Williams, Jones lead A&M over Louisiana Tech 80-52

The Texas A&M women’s basketball team certainly didn’t suffer from a holiday hangover in their first game back since Christmas.

In fact, the team was more than ready for their first post-holiday test.

In front of a crowd of 4,544 at Reed Arena, the Aggies dominated the visiting, three-time national champion Louisiana Tech Lady Techsters 80-52 on Saturday night. With the victory, A&M pushes its record to 8-4 while Louisiana Tech falls to 5-8 on the season.

Hitting on their first eight shots of the game, the Aggies used an early 19-2 run to gain control early on and did not let up until the game was well in the bag.

Behind 15 first half points from sophomore forward Courtney Williams and nine first half assists from sophomore point guard Jordan Jones, A&M took a 51-25 advantage into the locker room at the break.

Williams would finish the game with 22 points and 10 rebounds while Jones added a total of 11 points and 13 assists. The pair of double-doubles was just the second such occurrence of the season for the Aggies.

With the victory in hand, A&M head coach Gary Blair used the latter part of the second half to give his bench valuable game time. Because of this, A&M’s lead did not grow much larger. However, the trade-off of in-game experience that may be important in SEC play versus producing a bigger blowout of a sub-.500 opponent was definitely the smart decision.

In total, the Aggies shot 52% from the field and once again limited their opponent to a sub-par night from the field as Louisiana Tech sank a mere 28% of their shots.

Not only did A&M out-shoot the Lady Techsters, they also picked up more rebounds (48-38), recorded more points in the paint (36-10), and ran their way to more fastbreak points (23-0).

With their short holiday break behind them, the Aggies’ schedule now begins to pick up steam as they play again in just two days against Arkansas State on Monday night at Reed Arena.