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Gary Blair
Knox and Williams
MSU HC Vic Schaefer
Texas A&M Women's Basketball

Texas A&M Women's Hoops comes up short against No. 3 MSU, 72-67

February 19, 2017
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Not since defeating Stanford in the Final Four of their 2011 National Championship run has the Texas A&M women’s basketball team defeated a team ranked inside the top three of the AP poll.

That nearly changed on Sunday.

After holding a five-point lead with as little as 5:03 to play, 23rd-ranked Texas A&M Women's Basketball fell to the third-ranked Mississippi State Bulldogs, 72-67, at Reed Arena on Sunday afternoon.

Despite going 7-of-7 from three-point range and turning the ball over just eight times against Bulldogs’ head coach and former A&M assistant Vic Schaefer’s tenacious defense, the Aggies allowed a 13-2 run over the game’s final minutes that spelled their demise.

A&M sophomore Danni Williams led the way for the Aggies with 23 points, while senior point guard Curtyce Knox added 19 and eight assists. For the Bulldogs, point guard Victoria Vivians scored a game-high 25, while Brenham native Teaira McCowan added 16 and 13 rebounds.

With the result, A&M falls to 19-8 overall and 10-4 in the SEC, while Mississippi State moves to 27-1 on the year and 13-1 in conference play.

“I went back and told my kids that the effort was great, but I’m not in this thing for moral victories over Ws,” said A&M head coach Gary Blair. “When we’re up seven, we’re supposed to win at home. That’s the bottom line.”

Matt Sachs, TexAgs Texas A&M's Danni Williams committed a crucial foul late in the second quarter, allowing the Bulldogs to tie the game.
With 16 seconds left in the second quarter, A&M concluded a 14-4 run after a Knox jumper, and looked as if they would take a three-point lead into the locker room at the break.

However, Danni Williams committed a foul as Mississippi State’s Victoria Vivians took a desperation three before the buzzer, allowing her to hit a trio of free throws to tie the game at 30 at the half.

“Right before the end of the first half when we needed a stop, Danni makes a foul on a three-point shot. That’s inexcusable,” said Blair. “We were doing everything right, but you can’t give them free points, and that’s what we did.”

The second half was a game of runs, the first of which came from Mississippi State. Over the course of the second half’s first 2:17, the Bulldogs used a 9-0 spurt to take a 39-30 lead. But the Aggies weathered the storm and kept the lead in the single digits until a run of their own came.

With 3:56 remaining in the third quarter and Mississippi State leading by eight, Taylor Cooper hit on a three-pointer that ignited a 17-4 finish to the period by the Aggies. That allowed A&M to take a 55-50 lead into the game’s final period.

During that stretch, A&M connected on four three-pointers, two each from Cooper and Williams.

“Those guards started shooting the ball so well,” said Schaefer. “I can’t tell you how much we talked about making them put it on the deck a bit and create, but we just let them stay out there and shoot it. They were just out there playing a game of HORSE, and we just let them have it.”

The Aggies stretched their lead to as many as seven in the fourth quarter, but unfortunately for the home crowd, the final run of the game belonged to the Bulldogs. Over the game’s final five minutes, Mississippi State used a 13-2 run to erase A&M’s six-point lead and got out of College Station with a victory.

On A&M’s second to last possession, Knox tweaked her knee and was visibly limping on the court but was well enough to continue on. Down three with 23 seconds left, Knox dribbled around on what would be A&M’s final possession before throwing up a contested shot that glanced off the rim and into the arms of the Bulldogs with just three seconds remaining.

Vivians went to the free throw line, knocked down the final two points of that 13-2 run and secured the victory for Mississippi State.
Vivians went to the free throw line, knocked down the final two points of that 13-2 run and secured the victory for Mississippi State.

“We ran the wrong play on the last two possessions,” said Blair. “We had it set up for Danni but both post players were in the wrong position. That’s my job in end-of-game situations, that my team is going to execute down the stretch. We’ve done it all year, but we didn’t do it tonight.”

Still jockeying for seeding in the SEC Tournament, A&M now turns its attention to sixth-ranked South Carolina who visits Reed Arena on Thursday night. That game can be seen on the SEC Network at 8 p.m.
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Texas A&M Women's Hoops comes up short against No. 3 MSU, 72-67

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