Wednesday, November 22
College Station
6 p.m.
Texas A&M
3-1
66
vs
49
Little Rock
1-2
1
2
3
4
F
Little Rock
22
8
8
11
49
Texas A&M
14
16
22
14
66
Photo by: Sam Craft/Texas A&M Athletics
No. 19 Women's Basketball Defeats Little Rock, 66-49
Nov 22, 2017 | Women's Basketball
COLLEGE STATION- Khaalia Hillsman scored her 1,000th career point, helping No. 19 Texas A&M defeat Little Rock 66-49 in a women's basketball game at Reed Arena.
The Aggies (3-1) started the second half with a 16-3 run, breaking what was a 30-30 tie at halftime, and never letting Little Rock (1-2) closer than 10 points for the remainder of the game.
For the fourth time in as many games this season, four Aggies scored in double figures, led by Danni Williams, who had 18 points, including 3-of-3 shooting from beyond the arc. Chennedy Carter added 17, Anriel Howard had 13 and Hillsman had 10. Howard had her fourth straight double-double in the game, with a game-high 12 rebounds.
Hillsman reached the 1,000 point milestone with the first basket of the second half, becoming the 29th Texas A&M player with 1,000 points, and the first since Courtney Walker and Courtney Williams reached that milestone in 2014-15. She now has 1,005 career points, which ranks 28th all-time at Texas A&M.
The Aggies return to action on Sunday, November 26 at 2 p.m. at Texas Tech. The Aggies return to Reed Arena for back-to-back home games against Prairie View and Rice on November 28 and 29.
QUICKIE NOTES
POSTGAME QUOTES
Texas A&M Head Coach Gary Blair
Opening Statement…
"They are a very hard team to guard because they run it and we had to go to a zone, like we did last year, because we couldn't guard them man-to-man. Their motion offense is that good. We were letting [Ronjanae] DeGray, who was having a really good game, have six of her eight baskets from 15 feet in. We didn't have a hand in her face. We got there late. My post players have got to learn that nobody is a block person. You have to be able to go outside, whether zone or man, and stop that high post shot. I think the key in the ballgame was the last five minutes of the second half when we got it back to even. We were playing a guard only offense right there with Chennedy [Carter] and Danni [Williams] just trying to keep us into it until we could make some adjustments. I'll take all the blame for my offense in the first half. I'm trying to run too many sets to get Khaalia [Hillsman] isolated and we are throwing the ball away or she's travelling. We need to be more free-wheeling offense and get better up and down the court in transition. If we get it inside fine, but if not don't worry about it. Let's just keep attacking and do some other things. Hopefully we change before we get to Texas Tech. Give Little Rock, DeGray and [Monique] Townson a lot of credit. Danni had 18 points and she had to earn every one of them against Townson. Townson was doing a great job hanging on her. Give Danni credit on a tough night offensively. She hit that tough shot in the second half, I don't know how it went in. When you are a good shooter, it's not luck."
On Khaalia Hillsman...
"I was happy that Khaalia took the adjustments and at halftime and a little bit of butt-chewing and responded and came out to play in the second half. That's what a senior is supposed to do. I give her a lot of credit for not letting the first half stay on her."
On Anriel Howard…
"When you watch her rebound, I've never seen anything like it in 46 years of coaching. She is relentless in how she pursues the ball and gets the loose balls and the hustle plays. Give her credit. They were guarding her pretty strong so we weren't able to give her the shots that we really wanted, but she got to the line."
On Little Rock keeping it close...
"I cannot keep letting teams stay in it in the first half when we have the better team. That is something that has to stop. I'm not saying we should have been up by 15 or 20 or anything like that. Our zone defense was good from the second half on when you outscore them like we did well there. I want to play man-to-man defense. Against Little Rock, which is the best motion team that we will play this year, we couldn't stop them."
On assists and getting better ball distribution…
"We've got get better ball, but what I'm not getting in the offense [is] I want Chennedy [Carter] to drive. I've never had a point guard that could drive like her. If she would just score easy instead of doing a French twist every now and then, but she's trying hard. She's creating havoc. It will smooth out as the year goes on. Every game is just like going to a class to her. She's learning something, what will work and what will not work. Once we get better in her executing our half court sets, her assists will go up. But right now, I think we have to run in transition a little bit more."
Texas A&M Junior Forward Anriel Howard
On slow starts of games...
"We are trying to figure that out. We just have to come out ready to play. I don't know what it is right now but we will figure it out and we will make sure it doesn't happen again against Texas Tech."
On Little Rock…
"Even though they are not as big as most teams in the SEC, they are very athletic and they crash hard to the board. So we had to box out. We missed a lot of rebounds that we should have had. So, yes, they were very athletic and relentless to the board."
Texas A&M Junior Guard Danni Williams
On shots today...
"I was just trying to find my rhythm early. We were struggling to begin with on defense and our offense wasn't really there either. So I was just trying find rhythm and shots that I felt comfortable with and I just kind of kept going from there."
Little Rock Head Coach Joe Foley
Opening Statement...
"I think that the offensive punch they've got. They are a very good offensive team and size wise we couldn't match up very well. I respect Coach Blair and the way his offensive is. I thought we showed control, handled the ball well. Then in the second half i thought we showed our inexperience a little bit too much."
On facing zones...
"We don't see a whole lot of matchups especially this time of year. You know we have concentrated more on getting ready to play against Maine. We are focused and have worked on matchups. You see it at times we break it down and other times we didn't do such a great job so just inexperienced right now."
The Aggies (3-1) started the second half with a 16-3 run, breaking what was a 30-30 tie at halftime, and never letting Little Rock (1-2) closer than 10 points for the remainder of the game.
For the fourth time in as many games this season, four Aggies scored in double figures, led by Danni Williams, who had 18 points, including 3-of-3 shooting from beyond the arc. Chennedy Carter added 17, Anriel Howard had 13 and Hillsman had 10. Howard had her fourth straight double-double in the game, with a game-high 12 rebounds.
Hillsman reached the 1,000 point milestone with the first basket of the second half, becoming the 29th Texas A&M player with 1,000 points, and the first since Courtney Walker and Courtney Williams reached that milestone in 2014-15. She now has 1,005 career points, which ranks 28th all-time at Texas A&M.
The Aggies return to action on Sunday, November 26 at 2 p.m. at Texas Tech. The Aggies return to Reed Arena for back-to-back home games against Prairie View and Rice on November 28 and 29.
QUICKIE NOTES
- Texas A&M improves to 3-1 on the season, while Little Rock falls to 1-2
- The Aggies are now 57-11 in Reed Arena since the start of the 2013-14 season. The Aggies are 149-5 against unranked teams at Reed since Feb. 2005
- Texas A&M has won 78 straight home games against "mid-majors"
- Chennedy Carter, Khaalia Hillsman, Anriel Howard and Danni Williams have all scored in double figures in all four games this season.
- Danni Williams scored in double figures for the ninth straight game, dating back to last season, and the 35th time in her career
- She has hit at least two 3-pointers in every game this season, and six straight games overall, dating back to last season
- Chennedy Carter scored in double figures for the fourth straight game. She is the only Texas A&M freshman to score in double figures in each of her first four games.
- Khaalia Hillsman became the 29th Texas A&M player to score 1,000 points in her career.
- She scored in double figures for the fourth time in four games this season, and the 48th time in her career
- Anriel Howard posted her fourth double-double in four games this season, and the 17th of her career tying her for fourth with teammate Khaalia Hillsman on Texas A&M's career list
- She scored in double figures for the fourth time in four games this season, and the 24th time in her career
- She had 10+ rebounds for the fourth time this season and 31st time in her career
- Texas A&M head coach Gary Blair is 334-141 in 15 seasons at Texas A&M, and is 12th all-time with a 742-305 record in his Hall of Fame career. He is only four wins behind Little Rock coach Joe Foley on the career list, who falls to 746-236.
- The Aggies return to action on Sunday, November 26 at 2 p.m. at Texas Tech. The Aggies return to Reed Arena for back-to-back home games against Prairie View and Rice on November 28 and 29.
POSTGAME QUOTES
Texas A&M Head Coach Gary Blair
Opening Statement…
"They are a very hard team to guard because they run it and we had to go to a zone, like we did last year, because we couldn't guard them man-to-man. Their motion offense is that good. We were letting [Ronjanae] DeGray, who was having a really good game, have six of her eight baskets from 15 feet in. We didn't have a hand in her face. We got there late. My post players have got to learn that nobody is a block person. You have to be able to go outside, whether zone or man, and stop that high post shot. I think the key in the ballgame was the last five minutes of the second half when we got it back to even. We were playing a guard only offense right there with Chennedy [Carter] and Danni [Williams] just trying to keep us into it until we could make some adjustments. I'll take all the blame for my offense in the first half. I'm trying to run too many sets to get Khaalia [Hillsman] isolated and we are throwing the ball away or she's travelling. We need to be more free-wheeling offense and get better up and down the court in transition. If we get it inside fine, but if not don't worry about it. Let's just keep attacking and do some other things. Hopefully we change before we get to Texas Tech. Give Little Rock, DeGray and [Monique] Townson a lot of credit. Danni had 18 points and she had to earn every one of them against Townson. Townson was doing a great job hanging on her. Give Danni credit on a tough night offensively. She hit that tough shot in the second half, I don't know how it went in. When you are a good shooter, it's not luck."
On Khaalia Hillsman...
"I was happy that Khaalia took the adjustments and at halftime and a little bit of butt-chewing and responded and came out to play in the second half. That's what a senior is supposed to do. I give her a lot of credit for not letting the first half stay on her."
On Anriel Howard…
"When you watch her rebound, I've never seen anything like it in 46 years of coaching. She is relentless in how she pursues the ball and gets the loose balls and the hustle plays. Give her credit. They were guarding her pretty strong so we weren't able to give her the shots that we really wanted, but she got to the line."
On Little Rock keeping it close...
"I cannot keep letting teams stay in it in the first half when we have the better team. That is something that has to stop. I'm not saying we should have been up by 15 or 20 or anything like that. Our zone defense was good from the second half on when you outscore them like we did well there. I want to play man-to-man defense. Against Little Rock, which is the best motion team that we will play this year, we couldn't stop them."
On assists and getting better ball distribution…
"We've got get better ball, but what I'm not getting in the offense [is] I want Chennedy [Carter] to drive. I've never had a point guard that could drive like her. If she would just score easy instead of doing a French twist every now and then, but she's trying hard. She's creating havoc. It will smooth out as the year goes on. Every game is just like going to a class to her. She's learning something, what will work and what will not work. Once we get better in her executing our half court sets, her assists will go up. But right now, I think we have to run in transition a little bit more."
Texas A&M Junior Forward Anriel Howard
On slow starts of games...
"We are trying to figure that out. We just have to come out ready to play. I don't know what it is right now but we will figure it out and we will make sure it doesn't happen again against Texas Tech."
On Little Rock…
"Even though they are not as big as most teams in the SEC, they are very athletic and they crash hard to the board. So we had to box out. We missed a lot of rebounds that we should have had. So, yes, they were very athletic and relentless to the board."
Texas A&M Junior Guard Danni Williams
On shots today...
"I was just trying to find my rhythm early. We were struggling to begin with on defense and our offense wasn't really there either. So I was just trying find rhythm and shots that I felt comfortable with and I just kind of kept going from there."
Little Rock Head Coach Joe Foley
Opening Statement...
"I think that the offensive punch they've got. They are a very good offensive team and size wise we couldn't match up very well. I respect Coach Blair and the way his offensive is. I thought we showed control, handled the ball well. Then in the second half i thought we showed our inexperience a little bit too much."
On facing zones...
"We don't see a whole lot of matchups especially this time of year. You know we have concentrated more on getting ready to play against Maine. We are focused and have worked on matchups. You see it at times we break it down and other times we didn't do such a great job so just inexperienced right now."
With her last basket, @Big_Homieeee became the 29th Texas A&M player with 1,000 career points! pic.twitter.com/gwdKNU443S
— Aggie Women's Hoops (@AggieWBB) November 23, 2017
.@danniwill3 scored a game-high 18 points (7-of-12 shooting overall & a perfect 3-for-3 from deep) in Wednesday's win.#12thMan pic.twitter.com/abVCoOhxGQ
— Aggie Women's Hoops (@AggieWBB) November 23, 2017
Wednesday was another solid performance for @ChennedyCarter, who finished with 17 points on 8-of-16 shooting from the field. #12thMan pic.twitter.com/sm9QDmtoil
— Aggie Women's Hoops (@AggieWBB) November 23, 2017
Team Stats
LR
TAMU
FG%
.345
.439
3FG%
.125
.600
FT%
1.000
.867
RB
26
44
TO
15
19
STL
8
5
Game Leaders
Pts
18
FGM
7
3FGM
3
FTM
1
Pts
17
FGM
8
3FGM
0
FTM
1
Pts
13
FGM
3
3FGM
0
FTM
7
Pts
10
FGM
3
3FGM
0
FTM
4
Players Mentioned
G
/ Women's BasketballC
/ Women's BasketballF
/ Women's BasketballG
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