Howard's Game-Winner Lifts Aggies Over LSU

Sunday, January 22

College Station

4:00 PM

Texas A&M

15-5, 5-2SEC

LSU

14-6, 3-4SEC

LSU

Texas A&M

Photo by: Russell James/Texas A&M Athletics

Jan 22, 2017 | Women's Basketball

Box Score A&M 54 LSU 52 - Final Stats (PDF)Photo Gallery

COLLEGE STATION- Anriel Howard hit a layup with 3.6 seconds remaining, to finish a 15-point second-half comeback and give No. 25 Texas A&M a 54-52 win over LSU in a women's basketball game at Reed Arena.

The Aggies (15-5, 5-2 SEC), who had to rally from a 39-24 third quarter deficit, led for just 32 seconds in the game. Texas A&M scored the first basket of the game, before the Lady Tigers (14-6, 3-4 SEC) answered 28 seconds later. The Aggies, who tied the game five times after that, would not take the lead until the final seconds, leading for just 32 seconds in the contest.

Khaalia Hillsman, who had a team-high 13 points, scored with 39.6 left to tie the game at 52. She grabbed one of her nine rebounds on the ensuing LSU possession to set up Howard's game-winner.
The comeback marked the largest the Aggies overcame to win a game since Nov. 30, 2014 against Duke. It was the fourth time in seven conference games that the Aggies erased a 9+ point deficit to win or force overtime.

Curtyce Knox and Danni Williams each added 12 points. Taylor Cooper had six points, including a 3-pointer that tied the game at 49 with 3:41 to play.

The Aggies only used six players in the game, marking the second time this season the Aggies used six or fewer players. Prior to this season, the Aggies have not used six or fewer players in the same game since at least 2000-01.

Texas A&M returns to action on Sunday, January 29 at No. 4 Mississippi State, with tip set for 3 p.m. on SEC Network. The Aggies return to Reed Arena on Feb. 2 at 7 p.m. to host Florida.

QUICKIE NOTES

Texas A&M improves to 15-5 on the season and 5-2 in conference play. LSU is now 14-6 overall and 3-4 in conference play
Anriel Howard's layup with 3.6 seconds remaining gave the Aggies their first lead since 2-0, and was the margin of victory in the contest. It is the Aggies' first game-winner in the last 10 seconds since Courtney Walker at Alabama on Jan. 28, 2016
The Aggies rallied from a 15-point deficit to win, marking the fourth time in seven conference games the Aggies have erased at least a nine point deficit to win or force overtime.
The Aggies led for just 32 seconds in the game, with 28 of those seconds coming in the first quarter. Texas A&M never had the lead and the ball at the same time in this game.
This this the Aggies' largest comeback since a 15-point comeback against Duke on Nov. 30, 2014
This is the second time this season that Texas A&M used only six players in a game, both wins. Prior to this season, the Aggies had not used six or fewer players in a game since at least 2000-01.
Texas A&M has won five straight games at Reed Arena. The Aggies are 9-1 at home this season and 51-8 at home since the start of 2013-14. Texas A&M is 143-5 against unranked teams at home since Feb. 2005.
Khaalia Hillsman has scored in double figures in all 20 games this season
Danni Williams scored in double figures for the 10^th straight game and 19^th time in 20 games this season
Curtyce Knox scored 10+ points for the ninth time this season and the sixth time in seven SEC games
Anriel Howard had double-digit rebounds for the 15^th time this season and the first time since Jan. 8.
Texas A&M head coach Gary Blair is 324-134 in 14 seasons at Texas A&M and 732-297 in his Hall of Fame career. He ranks eighth among active coaches and is 14^th all-time in career wins.
His 104 wins in SEC play lead all active coaches.

Texas A&M Head Coach Gary Blair
Opening Statement…
"We finally just hung and pecked away on offense and got the shots that we needed down on the end. We've done this too many times, and when you look at it, we shoot 46 in the third and 58 in the last quarter. I'm tired of going back there and giving the halftime speeches that Coach Starkey, Kelly (Bond-White) and I have to give, but so far it works. This was a ballgame you couldn't afford to lose at home. All we did was hold serve. When you're at home, you're supposed to win, particularly until the end of the year, and then we're going to have to be at our best when we have South Carolina and Mississippi State.

On adjustments…
Right now, teams are stopping us on certain things, and we're having to make adjustments. It took us a long time in the first half to get what we wanted. Of course, Danni (Williams) didn't have a great shooting night, but she still did some things at the end.

On the play calls on the final two possessions…
I told Curtyce (Knox) on that last play when we called a timeout that it didn't matter if they were in a man or zone, if we don't have the open shot, the ball's in your hand and you penetrate the lane. It's either your runner, dump to (Khaalia) Hillsman, and I had no idea Anriel (Howard) would be over there, but it worked, we got the shot that we wanted, and then that was 5'11" (LSU's Alexis) Hyder shooting over her on that last shot. The same shot she just made to tie it, Hyder had to score over her, and it's tough. We took (Raigyne) Moncrief away because that's who they wanted to go to. But again, Curtyce Knox did one heck of a job on the defensive end."

On sophomore forward Anriel Howard's game-winning shot...
"We were running a variation of Texas, and that's an overload set to get it to her, and you put (Taylor) Cooper over on the far side to take help away. Technically where she (Howard) is supposed to be is coming to the high post, so for once she was in the wrong place at the right time."

On LSU junior guard Raigyne Moncrief…
"Give Moncrief a whole lot of credit. That's as good as I've seen her. She redshirted last year. She is a next-level player. She can beat you off the dribble; she's a great defensive player. For once we got her to only two steals and she's averaging five I think in conference play, so that was a strength. They average thirteen as a team but we only got three ourselves."

Texas A&M Junior Center Khaalia Hillsman
On her game today and if her rebounds and total points are continually getting better…
"Well, today wasn't my finest offensive hour but I mean they still have a lot of faith in me so it's not going to happen too many times where I shoot 6-13 but them having confidence in me, it just helped me keep going, keep posting and keep going strong."

On seeing the game-tying basket go in…
"When I was looking at it, I was like 'oh man, one finally went in there.' All my jump hooks were not falling today, so for that one to go in I thought 'I'd rather make that one than make all the other ones and miss at a crucial time,' so at least I made it when it counted."

On halftime chats and what clicks to help them have strong second half…
"Personally, for me when he tells me I'm getting my butt kicked, that motivates me to go out there and punish them. That makes me upset and I think he knows that, but as a team when he tells us that 'we have to pick it up, we do this too much, it's getting old, we can't make this a habit.' I think that motivates us and we're like 'he's right, we can't come out here and be doing this all the time' and I think it makes us come out harder and want to just prove to him that we are capable of starting off strong."

Texas A&M Sophomore Forward Anriel Howard
On if the last play was meant for her…
"No, but everybody came toward Curtyce [Knox] so I was the open man so I just had to knock down a shot."

On if she had to improvise a little bit on that play…
"Yeah, I did. [Laughs] That wasn't the plan."

On playing defense after making big shot with 3 seconds to go…
"Well, that's where Coach [Bob] Starkey comes in and he gave us our defensive instructions and we executed it. I'm just happy that we won the game."

LSU Head Coach Nikki Fargas
Opening Statement…
"A disappointing loss from the standpoint of how hard we felt like we competed and how we felt like we were in control of the game most of the game and to dwindle the lead and not be able to put together a run of ourselves. From an offensive standpoint, I thought we didn't execute down the stretch as well as we needed to and Texas A&M did. They found and had plays that I thought were very instrumental in their run. They were scoring from the three ball. They had dribble drive but not going to lessen how hard my kids worked and how we put ourselves in a position for this game to go either way."