Texas A&M drops fifth SEC game, falls to Ole Miss at home, 80-63
Press conference video courtesy of Texas A&M Athletics.
The Aggies’ disastrous start to league play took a deeper turn Thursday night.
After being silenced for over five minutes while the Rebels jetted off to a 14-0 run, Texas A&M (11-7, 1-5) hit just two baskets in the third quarter as Ole Miss (16-2, 4-1) rolled to an 80-63 victory.
“It’s only going to be a sense of urgency, and right now, we do not have that,” Texas A&M head coach Gary Blair said. “Once that second-quarter hit, they hit a couple of threes, and we wilted, just flat wilted.”
A&M’s offense could not atone for the team’s 17-6 turnover margin that ultimately resulted in 25 points-off-turnovers for the Rebels.
The outlook of the game looked much different from the onset as neither team shied away from jumping out to a hot start. Qadashah Hoppie kicked off Texas A&M’s opening trio of 3-pointers with Kayla Wells subsequently providing a pair of her own.
Wells scored 14 points off 6-of-7 shooting from the free-throw line. Hoppie finished with eight, while Jordan Nixon flirted with a triple-double at seven points, six rebounds and eight assists.
With a tied game at 19 heading into the second quarter, the Aggies soon lost grip of their momentum, and the Rebels didn’t hesitate to take full advantage, owning a 47-34 halftime advantage.
Before they knew it, the Aggies found themselves ice-cold.
McKinzie Green managed to snap A&M’s drought after making the most of an and-1 opportunity through traffic to start the final stanza.
Yet, Ole Miss’ offensive production refused to taper, finding the bottom of the net on 49 percent of their shots, including back-to-back 3-pointers to counter Green’s basket as they built their lead to as many as 28 points by the midway point in the fourth quarter.
The Rebels were led behind Lashonda Monk’s team-high 16 points and Angel Baker's 15 points off the bench.
Texas A&M failed to rally despite outscoring Ole Miss 23-14 in the fourth as the Aggies were unable to compensate for a lack of offensive balance that haunted the team through the entirety of the game.
“You can’t stay alive in the ball game just shooting threes. You got to have a balance," Blair said. "The most important thing: You got to have stops. And it doesn’t matter what we tried, it wasn’t good enough.
“We just got to get smarter. I wish I knew the answers, but I’ll go look in the mirror first. And the mirror is me. It’s me right now and what I’m not getting across with these young ladies.”
In desperate need of a win, the Maroon & White will travel to Columbia to face Mizzou at 5 p.m. on Sunday.