No. 12 Women's Basketball Tops No. 14 Duke in OT

Wednesday, November 18

Durham, N.C.

6:00 PM

Texas A&M

3-0

Duke

2-1

OT 1

Texas A&M

Duke

Photo by: Duke Athletics/Jon Gardiner

Nov 18, 2015 | Women's Basketball

Box Score

DURHAM, N.C. (AP) -- Courtney Walker and Courtney Williams combined for 8 of Texas A&M's 9 points in overtime to lead the No. 12 Aggies over 14th-ranked Duke 72-66 on Wednesday night.

Duke (2-1) led 64-63 when Williams hit a jumper and Walker scored the Aggies' next six points before Williams and Rachel Mitchell added free throws.

Walker hit half of her 16 shots to finish with 22 points while grabbing 11 rebounds. Jordan Jones added 14 points and Williams 12 for Texas A&M (3-0).

Duke trailed by 11 points with 7:17 left in the third quarter before coming back to tie the game on a 7-0 run to open the fourth quarter. They had a 2-point lead with 2:23 left.

Khaalia Hillsman's basket with 34 seconds left sent the game into overtime.

Rebecca Greenwell made 8 of 10 shots and led Duke with 22 points. Azura Stevens had 12 points and 16 rebounds.

POSTGAME NOTES

This is A&M's first win in Cameron Indoor Stadium in two tries, after previously falling in Cameron Indoor 61-58 in the 2010-11 season—one of just five losses for the National Champion squad. The win snapped Duke's 15-game home winning streak.
Texas A&M starts 3-0 for the third straight year and ninth time in the past 10 years
This is A&M's fifth win all-time against the team ranked No. 14 in the AP Poll. This is Blair's 55^th ranked win at Texas A&M and the 21^st ranked win of the Gary Blair Era on an opponent's home floor.
A&M leads the all-time series against Duke 5-1.

A&M is 16-10 all-time in overtime games, and is 1-0 in OT this year. A&M has won 3 of their last four games in overtime
Courtney Walker had her second career double double
This was Walker's 21^st 20+ point scoring game of her career, and her first since Feb. 16, 2015
Walker scored in double figures for the fourth straight game, dating back to last season, and 77^th time in her career.
Walker had her second career double digit rebounding game, and set a career-high in rebounds
Jordan Jones scored in double figures for the second straight game and 23^rd time in her career
The Aggies have not lost a game in regulation with a healthy Jordan Jones since Jan. 26, 2015, going 8-1 with Jones in that span, with the only loss coming in overtime to Mississippi State.
Courtney Williams scored in double figures for the 13^th straight game and 60^th time in her career
Gary Blair needs two more wins to become the 16^th Division I coach with 700 wins. He is 698-282 in his career and 290-119 in 13 seasons at Texas A&M

Texas A&M head coach Gary Blair:

Opening Statement:
"I thought you had two good teams trying to find themselves. Before the ball game, I asked my seniors to stand up and asked my juniors to stand up. We've got eight of them. They've got such great freshmen and sophomores, but this is a ball game whether you're on the road or whether you're at home, you've got to find a way to do it. Kids that have been in this situation before like [Jordan Jones and Courtney Walker] here make the right decision. This kid coming off an ACL, she played 15 minutes her first game, 22, and she just came in and kept going. I did not want to play her that many minutes just coming off of that ACL but she is the heart and soul of our team. This kid here is the best mid-range shooter in America. You've got a good one in Greenwell but this is Mid-Range City and she does a great job to hit the tough shots. It wasn't [Courtney] Williams's best ball game as you could tell. She had trouble guarding. It wasn't a good day for her, but she's an All-American. That's why a lot of people were here watching her tonight. She will do better but she's got to get better defensively and hit the easy shots. Duke, it boiled down to the end. [Rebecca] Greenwell in the first half hurt us. 8 out of 10, 6 rebounds, 22 points, 40 minutes. Eventually, your legs give out and you wear down a little and we did as good as we could trying to guard her. You just saw two of the best two guards in the country in Greenwell and Walker. To your credit you get her for two more years. I've got to lose all of my seniors this year. [Azurá] Stevens, she's just a nightmare to match up. Last year was even worse when you had [Elizabeth] Williams and you had to go put a 4 or 3 on her out there. Give Joanne [P. McCallie] a lot of credit. When you can recruit as well as Duke and you can have this building. This is my bucket list. I've completed my bucket list so you might not see me again. Duke – everything about this program is just class. It's just class. In all of the sports, that's something you should be very proud of. You've got a great coaching staff, you've got a great young team, they're going to get better and better and they're going to compete to win the ACC, but they're going to take some lumps just like us. We're going to get better, try to stay healthy, and try to improve."

On the importance of bench scoring and rebounding:
"The biggest part of the ball game was in the first and second quarter when we got so many loose balls and we got into transition. This is how we beat you last year. We were down 15 with 11:30 to go and we made you miss and got into transition. It was like a highlight. That's what we were doing to stay in the game early. That gives us confidence. It's hard for me to run set plays all the time and particularly against your zone. They switched from man, which we were hurting them in man, to zone that hurt us because of their length. Twenty offensive boards, that's just guts and pride. Last year at our place they had 20 on us. I don't know at the end if we just wanted it a little bit more on the tough rebound. I kept alternating my two bigs in there. They have trouble scoring but they competed hard in there. They competed hard against two McDonald's All-Americans."

On the play of Courtney Williams:

"It killed us, but she wasn't doing a whole lot until then. And then Danni Williams came in, that kid from New Mexico, she hasn't met a shot she doesn't like. I wanted her to shoot because we had nothing inside. We had one basket out of four post players, and the rest of it was [Jones] and [Walker] and Danni Williams. We stayed in the ball game. Had a couple of garbage baskets right before the half to give us confidence and the lead. We were lucky to be ahead at half. [Courtney] Williams just has to play better. You've had All-Americans here. You have a lot of All-Americans that I recruited and didn't get. You're not going to be at your best every night. She goes 5-for-14. Any coach in America would love to have her. Sometimes LeBron goes 7-for-21 but he does both ends of the court. That's why I have to get Courtney to realize that the defensive end is just as important as the offensive end."

Texas A&M Senior Guard Jordan Jones:

On playing in front of her brother, Duke junior guard Matt Jones:
"I put on Snapchat earlier that this is probably going to be my favorite game of the year because it's so competitive with the history of Duke basketball and also being able to play in front of my brother and his significant other for the first time. It was very exciting. I just came out with a lot of confidence. I just wanted to basically show out for my brother because I don't get that chance very often. Part of it is just competing against him because he did score 16 the other night. I just love him so much. Just playing in front of him – I haven't played in front of him, really, since high school."

Texas A&M Senior Guard Courtney Walker:

On her play in the second half after a slow first half:
"I think defensively it was still the same game plan. Just to tag her tight and be on her hip when she's coming off so she can't get the open 3s which is really what gets her and especially the entire team going. As far as with me, it's just having an attacking mentality. The more and more my team needed me to step up. When the second half came, just getting on the floor, you get the shellshock of how big they are and then you're like 'Okay, move your legs and just let my shots come to me.'"