No. 12 Texas A&M uses late comeback to beat No. 23 UT, 76-71, in OT

It was definitely a super Sunday for the Texas A&M women’s basketball team.

After trailing by 11 points with 3:06 remaining in regulation, the 12th-ranked Aggies pulled off a comeback for the ages to defeat the 23rd-ranked Tennessee Lady Vols, 76-71, in overtime on Sunday afternoon.

Freshman forward Anriel Howard hit a putback jumper with five seconds remaining to tie the game and the Aggies outscored Tennessee 15-10 in overtime to grab the victory. The win moves A&M to 5-5 against ranked teams this season and avoids the program’s first three-game losing streak since 2013.

Courtney Walker scored a game-high 29 points, Khaalia Hillsman added 14 more and Howard tallied nine and pulled down 11 rebounds to help A&M (16-7, 6-4) to victory. Jordan Reynolds scored 16 for the Lady Vols (14-9, 5-5).

“You saw a good ball game tonight,” said A&M head coach Gary Blair. “For those that left with three minutes left, I hope they got to their car, turned around and came back in to see one of the greatest comebacks we’ve ever had.”

Over the first 20 minutes of play, the two teams locked into a tight battle that saw the Aggies take a slim, 30-29 lead to the locker room at the halftime break.

However, the third quarter was a different story.

The Lady Vols first possession of the second half resulted in a pair of made free throws from Andraya Carter, giving Tennessee the lead for the first time since the 8:05 mark of the first quarter.

Eventually, that lead would grow to as many as 11 with seven seconds left in the quarter after a 14-5 Lady Vols run. In the period, the Lady Vols outscored A&M 22-10 and went 9-of-15 (60%) from the floor comparted to the Aggies’ 2-of-17 (12%).

“I don’t want to say we’ve given games away in the third quarter this year, but we’ve given leeway to a lead or a close game and not been able to catch back up,” Walker said. “We did the same thing today, we found ourselves kind of dead.”

But fortunately for A&M, the story didn’t end there.

With just over three minutes remaining in regulation and Tennessee holding an 11-point lead, Walker connected on an and-one play for the Aggies to close the gap to eight. After a defensive stop, Chelsea Jennings closed the Aggies within six on a jumper with 2:32 remaining.

After a Tennessee free throw to pushed it back to seven, Walker hit a jumper which was followed by a pair of free throws from both Jordan Jones and Walker to pull A&M within two points inside a minute left in regulation.

“When we finally got it down to five, I knew we had a chance,” said Blair.

Needing one more big defensive play to have a chance at a game-tying shot, A&M pressured a Tennessee inbounds pass with 24 seconds left and got the stop they needed. However, it would come at a price.

As Lady Vols’ Jaime Nared caught the inbounds pass and began to turn to the basket, Jones snuck in behind her and drew a high-contact charge that knocked the A&M point guard to the ground. Jones got the call she wanted but would be down on the court for the next several minutes as coaches and trainers from both sides attended to her.

Eventually, Jones was carried off the playing floor on a stretcher and taken to the hospital for further evaluation.

“When you hit your head that hard, you’re going to have to go have it checked out,” said Blair. “When she was down on the court it was really hurting her to move her neck. It’s not going to be ‘take two Aspirin and go to bed’. I think it’s pretty serious.”

On the ensuing possession, Walker missed her initial look at the basket but Howard was there to clean up the glass and sunk her game-tying jumper with five seconds to play. Tennessee would have a final shot, but their desperation heave glanced off the rim, ending regulation with the score tied at 61.

Although they were without the services of Jones and Courtney Williams, who fouled out earlier in the game, the Aggies went into overtime with complete momentum and used it to their advantage.

Playing the aggressor, A&M looked to drive to the basket in the extra period and were awarded with 12 free throw attempts. Of those 12, the Aggies connected on 11 of them –including their first eight in a row—to take control of the overtime period.

The Lady Vols cut the Aggies lead down to just one point with 1:55 left, but it was Walker’s answer of four straight from the charity stripe over the next minute and a half that ultimately built A&M’s insurmountable lead.

After the game, Walker said it was Jones’ injury that spurred the team to victory.

“Jordan was the one that helped us get our energy going again when we were kind of dead,” Walker said. “We couldn’t go tell her later tonight that we lost. We had to make sure to be able to tell her we finished it for her.”

Though the win over the Lady Vols was much needed and keeps the Aggies in position to earn a double-bye in the conference tournament, they now face an equally as large – or bigger – task as former A&M assistant Vic Schaefer and his 11th-ranked Mississippi State Bulldogs make the trek to Reed Arena on Thursday.

That contest can be seen live on the SEC Network at six o’clock on Thursday evening.