COLLEGE STATION, Texas — Senior Courtney Williams had a game-high 22 points and classmate Courtney Walker added 21 Thursday to lead the No. 15 Texas A&M women’s basketball team to a 64-58 victory against No. 11 Mississippi State at Reed Arena.
Texas A&M improved to 17-7 and 7-4 in the Southeastern Conference, while MSU saw a four-game losing streak snapped and fell to 21-5 and 8-4. MSU maintained sole possession of second place in the conference standings thanks to No. 2 South Carolina’s 86-71 victory against No. 16 Florida on Thursday.
MSU led by as many as 11 twice in the first half, but Texas A&M scored the final five points of the half to trail 32-26 before grabbing the lead in the closing minute of the third quarter.
“We are disappointed, but it was a heck of a game,” MSU coach Vic Schaefer said. “I love my team and I love how competitive we are. We are still a young, immature team at times. The end of the first half showed our youth and inexperience.
“We have a chance to lead by 11 or 12 at the half. We take a shot too early and then we are up only six at the half. I am really proud at how hard we competed. We faced two of the best guards in the nation.”
Morgan William led the Bulldogs with 18 points. Victoria Vivians added 13 points and Dominique Dillingham added 11 points. Chinwe Okorie had a team-high seven rebounds. But William and Vivians combined to shoot 9 of 35 from the field. William was 9 of 10 from the free-throw line, while Vivians didn’t attempt a free throw.
“We just didn’t cash in on enough of our offensive opportunities,” William said. “We made too many mistakes to win a game like that.”
Texas A&M’s Williams, who is 6-foot-1, capitalized on her height advantage to shoot 10 of 19 from the field. Walker, a 5-8 guard, was 8 of 16 from the field. The rest of the Aggies combined to take 25 shots.
“We were going against two of the best guards in the country,” Schaefer said. “Courtney Walker and Courtney Williams are just really, really good. I felt like we did an adequate job at halftime holding them to 8 of 18 but in the second half they went 10 of 17. We did a fairly good job on everybody else. It’s hard to deal with Courtney Williams when she is rising over you and hitting those shots. I figured she was going to go off today and I wasn’t wrong.”
Texas A&M, which was playing without point guard Jordan Jones, continued its run with four-straight points to start the second half. A 3-pointer by Vivians provided an answer and the Bulldogs led 39-32. The Aggies closed within one twice before finally taking the lead with 1:10 left in the third quarter.
Texas A&M followed with the first seven points of the fourth quarter and MSU was unable to recover.
“It hardly ever works out when you’re facing a wounded team,” Schaefer said. “They always rally around the wounded warrior and just find a way to win. You really have to tip your hat off to Curtyce Knox, who had five assists and one turnover and led her team when they needed her. You have to commend her for a great job. Shlonte (Allen) hadn’t played a lot and she played well for them. She made two big shots and three steals in 10 minutes. Both those kids come in a give Jordan (Jones) a blow and they never missed a beat.”
Back-to-back baskets by Breanna Richardson extended MSU’s lead to 30-19 with 1 minute, 45 seconds left in the first half, but Texas A&M cut the deficit to 32-26 at halftime. It marked the third time in the last six games that the Bulldogs failed to close the first half on a strong note and surrendered an inopportune basket or a run to the opponent.
MSU was 19 of 61 from the field (31.1 percent), 5 of 15 from 3-point range (33.3), and 15 of 19 from the free-throw line (78.9). Texas A&M was 26 of 60 from the field (43.3), 2 of 5 from 3-point range (40), and 10 of 14 from the free-throw line (71.4).
MSU held a 42-39 rebounding advantage. The Bulldogs had 11 assists and 17 turnovers, while the Aggies had 11 assists and 15 turnovers.
MSU will have the weekend off before it returns to action at 6 p.m. Thursday (SEC Network) to play host to No. 18 Kentucky at Humphrey Coliseum. The game will be MSU’s annual “Think Pink” game. The first 500 fans will receive free “Think Pink” T-shirts.
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