Texas A&M pulls away late in season opening victory over Houston, 83-65
Texas A&M opened its season the right way on Friday at Reed Arena, defeating Houston 83-65 in the Aggies’ first game of the Preseason WNIT.
Danni Williams led all scorers with 21 points on 7-of-13 shooting, including 5-of-9 from three-point range, and Khaalia Hillsman was a force in the paint with 19 points and 11 rebounds.
Anriel Howard recorded a double-double of her own with 11 points and 12 rebounds, and Chennedy Carter scored 15 points and dished out five assists.
“We’re going to take it and learn from it,” A&M head coach Gary Blair said after the game. “I think the score was a little deceiving. It sure didn’t feel like 18 points because they missed a lot of shots late and we were pretty good at the free throw line the whole night.”
The Aggies started the game on fire in the first quarter, as Hillsman made layups on each of their first two possessions and Williams sunk a three-pointer to give A&M a 7-0 lead with less than a minute and a half off the clock.
Houston closed the gap in the middle of the game as the Aggies went into a scoring lull when Carter had to come out of the game due to foul trouble. The Cougars finished the first half on a 14-8 run, and then outscored A&M 16-12 in the third.
The Cougars got within four as Angela Harris drilled a three in the opening minute of the fourth quarter, but Hillsman responded with a layup to jumpstart a 16-4 run that effectively put the game out of reach.
“In the second and third quarters they did a great job of taking me away and then Danni was on fire and kept shooting, which allowed me to open back up,” Hillsman said. “I think our guard’s penetration and shooting, especially Danni, helped me stay open on offense.”
Williams capped off the run with back-to-back threes to push the Aggie lead to 12 with six minutes to go.
“Coach Blair had just called one of the plays and I was open, I shot it and it went in,” Williams said. “I give a lot of credit to Houston. When they closed the gap to four points, I think our experience really showed.”
In all, four Aggies reached double-figures in scoring and A&M shot 41.1 percent from the floor in what was a very efficient offensive showing. The Aggies also made half of their 12 three-point attempts and shot an impressive 86.1 percent (31-of-36) from the free throw line.
“Hats off to them. What I told my kids coming in is, ‘They know how to win, so if the game is tight we either have to go and take it or they’re going to win the game,” Houston head coach Ronald Hughey said. “When we got within four we thought we would be able to make it really, really interesting, but [Blair] knows how to coach, he’s been doing it a long time, he’s been successful and he has players who know how to win.”
The Aggies return to Reed Sunday for their second game of the Preseason WNIT against Louisiana. Opening tip is scheduled for 2 p.m. and can be seen on SEC Network +.