WBB: No. 15 A&M survives scare from Arkansas 59-55

If once is good, twice is better.

For the second time this season, the No. 15 Texas A&M women’s basketball team defeated the Arkansas Razorbacks in dramatic fashion, this time besting the Hogs 59-55 at Reed Arena on Thursday night.

Behind 15 points from Courtney Williams and 14 more from Courtney Walker, the Aggies survived a late push from the Razorbacks and moved to 19-6 on the year and 7-4 in SEC play and run their home winning streak to 15 games.

“What a ball game that we couldn’t pull away,” said A&M head coach Gary Blair after the win. “Arkansas has had problems finishing because of their lack of depth, but their kids fought so hard.”

Over the game’s first five minutes, it appeared that the Razorbacks were going to shoot the lights out of the arena as Arkansas hit on five of their first seven shots to take an early 14-8 lead with 15:20 remaining in the first half.

However, the Aggie defense clamped down throughout the remainder of the period and held the Hogs to just 4-of-27 from the floor for the rest of the half, allowing A&M to take a 30-23 lead to the locker room at the break.

After halftime, the Aggies pushed their lead out to as many as 10 early in the second half, but the Razorbacks mounted a comeback and cut the lead down to two with 11:28 remaining in the game on a three-pointer by Kelsey Brooks.

“We had some inside plays called and we decided to shoot the jumpers,” said Blair on how Arkansas was able to get the defensive stops needed to make a comeback. “We tried to get it inside but we just didn’t have the right spacing or the right passing angle.”

A quick 4-0 run on a jumper from Williams and a layup by Achiri Ade gave the Aggies a seven-point advantage with 4:23 left to play, but once again, A&M was unable to land the knock-out blow and Arkansas trimmed the lead to as small as one point with 34 seconds left in regulation on a jumper by Jackson.

On the ensuing possession, the Razorbacks were forced to foul and sent backup point guard Curtyce Knox to the line for a pair of free throws with 28 ticks remaining. Knox, who drew the start and played 39 minutes due to the absence of usual starter Jordan Jones, hit one of two free throws to give the Aggies a two point lead.

“Curtyce handled the pressure,” said Blair. “39 minutes … I need to know I have a backup back there. You better know you have a backup back there, and we’ve got a pretty good one.”

Down two and with the ball, the Razorbacks appeared to be setting up for the game’s final shot when Chelsea Jennings grabbed a steal with five seconds on the clock and was immediately fouled. The junior proceeded to sink both of her free throws and iced the game in A&M’s favor.

“Chelsea Jennings was doing a tremendous job on [guarding] Jackson,” said Blair. “The last turnover was hers at the end of the game and that was huge. Chelsea found a way to get it and goes to the free throw line and nails two. Give the kid a lot of credit, she’s had to sit behind some pretty good players.”

Without Jones, who missed practice this week with a stomach bug and was prepared to play “limited minutes” tonight, and often-used bench player Tori Scott, absent due to a family emergency, this was a contest in which the Aggies could have slipped up and cost themselves valuable seeding come March.

Instead, A&M secured the victory without their starting point guard and allowed the non-usual starters to gain a much needed confidence boost.

“Their confidence should be sky high,” Blair said of Knox and Jennings. “We realize that our depth is really good and we were able to play with a ‘next man up’ mentality. Jennings played 26 minutes and Knox played 39, those are career highs for both of them.”

With the hard-earned victory in tow, the Aggies now get an extra day of rest and will have Friday completely off before taking on the Alabama Crimson Tide on Monday, as opposed to the usual Thursday-Sunday scheduling of games.

“We felt like we needed to give the kids a real day off which is Friday,” said Blair. “Let the kids go out and let them go see 50 Shades of Grey, because during the game, I was turning 50 shades of gray. I was turning 50 shades of gray during the game, because every time I thought we had it in hand, something happened.”