WBB: A&M falls in home opener to #9 Penn State, 63-58

"I'm not in this to win games, I'm in this to win championships."

Those words, spoken by Texas A&M head coach Gary Blair, are the reason why you schedule three top-10 teams in non-conference play.

While gaining experience against the best teams in the country is a great thing, the 16th ranked A&M Women's Basketball team learned the hard way for the second time this season that it takes a complete game to beat the best.

The Aggies (0-2) played a solid first 34 minutes against the Penn State Lady Lions (2-0), but it was their play in the final six that ultimately led to a 63-58 loss against the ninth ranked team in the nation.

A&M held a five point lead at the break, thanks in part to a pair of Kelsey Bone layups in the final 32 seconds of the half.

"[Bone] is a fantastic player," said Penn State head coach Coquese Washington. "She's got into great shape since the last time I saw her which was her freshman year at South Carolina. She plays much more confidently than she did as a freshman, and she was a handful for us in the first half."

That lead would swell to as large as seven when sophomore Alexia Standish hit a pair of free throws early in the second half to give the Aggies their largest lead of the night.

Over the next 10 minutes, the Lady Lions whittled down the A&M advantage and eventually took the lead when Maggie Lucas completed the old fashioned three-point play after driving to the hoop and being fouled by freshman Courtney Williams. The bucket and following free throw gave Penn State the 51-49 lead with 8:35 left.

Just seconds later, freshman Courtney Walker would hit a jumper to tie the game at 51. Walker also finished the game with four steals on the defensive end.

"I think Walker played something like 39 minutes," said Bone. "We're asking Courtney to guard every team's best player, and as a freshman, that's not easy. She's filling the role that Sydney Carter left."

Fellow newcomer Peyton Little would follow that with a bucket from downtown and Bone would cap off the seven-point Aggie rally with an easy layup off an offensive rebound, making the score 56-51 A&M with 6:24 remaining.

But that's when things went bad for the Maroon and White.

Bone's layup would mark the final field goal of the game for A&M, and Alex Bentley - the game's leading scorer with 21 points - would single-handedly close the gap to one point over the next minute and a half.

After buckets by Dara Taylor and Nikki Greene, Bentley once again hit a soft jumper from about 12 feet to make the score 61-56 which gave Penn State their largest lead of the night with only 49 seconds remaining.

Bone would convert on a pair of free throws with eight seconds left to pull A&M within three, but Lucas connected on a pair of her own just one second later, pushing the lead to two possessions and ultimately icing the contest for the Lady Lions.

"We can't let these games work against us," said Bone. "We have to learn from our mistakes, get in the film room, get in the practice gym and hold each other accountable so that in December, in the last five or six minutes, we can be the team that finishes down the stretch."

After taking on two top-10 teams in the first week of the season, the schedule doesn't get any easier for Blair and his A&M squad as the second ranked Connecticut Huskies come to town on Sunday.

"Everybody is going to complain that I over-scheduled, but isn't this where this program is supposed to be," said Blair. "We just played two [top-10 teams] right down to the wire. Now can we do it again? I promise you that we will be a better team because of it."

That game will conclude the gauntlet of top-10 teams that started with a 47-45 loss to eighth ranked Louisville.