Aggies fall to Tennessee 86-77 in SEC Tournament semifinals

Duluth, Ga. – In any contest, there has to be a winner and a loser. Even if both sides compete extremely well and play at the highest of levels possible, someone will end up drawing the short end of the stick.

On Saturday afternoon, that stick was pulled by the Texas A&M women’s basketball team.

Although A&M point guard Jordan Jones recorded her third double-double of the year and guards Courtney Walker and Courtney Williams scores 26 and 22 respectively, the No. 15 and third-seeded Aggies fell to No. 6 and second-seeded Tennessee Lady Vols 86-77 in the SEC Tournament semifinals.

By bowing out before the championship, A&M will not compete in a conference title game for the first time since 2007.

“We played well here [in Georgia],” said A&M head coach Gary Blair. “We’ve got nothing to hold our hats about. We played a damn good ballgame. They played a better four minutes than we did at the end.”

As they did in their victory over Auburn on Friday, the Aggies jumped out to an early led as a three pointer from Williams gave the Aggies an 11-4 advantage with 14:58 left in the first half.

Soon after however, A&M center Karla Gilbert picked up her second foul of the game and was replaced by sophomore Rachel Mitchell. On her first play of the game, Mitchell picked up her first foul and then proceeded to pick up her second with 8:57 left in the half.

With the Aggies in serious foul trouble down low, Tennessee made a point to attack inside and immediately had success.

“I thought we attacked their big players,” said Tennessee head coach Holly Warlick. “Obviously it helped us to get them into foul trouble, but that was our game plan. We wanted to play inside out and they stuck to the game plan.”

Playing with two fouls, Mitchell committed her third of the game with 6:18 on the clock and sent Tennessee forward Cierra Burdick to the line for two free throws. Burdick hit the first and missed the second, but the Lady Vols got the rebound and center Isabelle Harrison put it back up and in for two.

Harrison was fouled on the play, but missed her free throw. Once again Tennessee grabbed the rebound and scored again on a tip in from Burdick to finish the five-point possession. In total, the Lady Vols nearly doubled-up the Aggies on the boards by a final count of 48-26, including 17 on the offensive end.

“My guards were not blocking out from the high post,” Blair said about how Tennessee racked up the rebounds with the A&M bigs in foul trouble. “Look who was our leader in rebounding, my point guard with six. I didn’t have another starter get five. That’s on us.”

Tennessee continued to use the foul-driven mismatch inside for the remainder of the half and eventually took a 39-38 lead to the locker room.

After the break, A&M once again scored quickly and built back up a five point lead with 15:57 remaining on a layup from Williams. But the similarities to the first half continued as Gilbert was whistled for her third and eventually her fourth foul with 11:09 left to play.

Mitchell was once again subbed in for Gilbert and although it was clear Tennessee was attacking her and trying to foul her out of the game, Mitchell played well enough inside this time to allow the Aggies to retake the lead once again with 8:08 left on a strong layup and and-one finish from Williams. The three-point play gave A&M a 69-67 lead.

But that would be the final time the Aggies were in control.

Although A&M shot the ball at a decent, but not great 52% in the second half, Tennessee came up with a series of timely stops down the stretch to seal the game.

With the game tied at 75 and 4:10 remaining, Walker missed a jumper. Then, the sophomore missed another one with 3:23 and Gilbert followed suit at the 2:50 mark. Finally, with 1:21 remaining Tennessee was fouled after gathering a defensive rebound for the fourth consecutive stop.

While the Aggies were in that offensive lull, Tennessee scored on four of five possessions to take an 82-75 lead.

“When we needed stops, we got stops,” said Warlick. “We played hard. To me, that’s the biggest part of the game besides second-chance points.”

A&M tried for one last push by pressing Tennessee on an inbounds play with 1:13 remaining, but Jones was knocked to the floor in the process and was shaken up on the play. After spending about two or three minutes down on the court with the training staff, Jones was helped to end of the bench where she was looked at by the team doctors.

No word the diagnosis, but Jones was seen walking around and laughing outside the locker room post-game and seemed to be in good spirits.

A&M won’t be able to defend their conference title this year, but bigger fish are still waiting to be fried.

The Aggies will use the next week and a half to rest up before the NCAA Tournament begins on March 23rd. Reed Arena is hosting the first two rounds of the tournament, and Blair knows his team has the potential to make a deep run.

“We play [the SEC tournament] because these are the types of teams you’re going to have to beat to get to the Final Four,” concluded Blair. “We’ll be ready because we’re hosting again for the third year in a row.”