Texas A&M
15-3,3-2SEC
Florida
11-8,2-4SEC
No. 12 Women Bounce Back, Down Florida 69-42
Jan 19, 2020 | Women's Basketball
Texas A&M Women's Basketball Postgame Notes
No. 12 Texas A&M 69, Florida 42
Reed Arena (College Station, Texas)
COLLEGE STATION – The No. 12 Texas A&M Aggies stifled the Florida Gators on their way to a 69-42 victory at Reed Arena Sunday night. Junior forward N'dea Jones led all players with 19 points and 13 rebounds for her sixth straight double-double.
After a slow start, the game was tied at the end of the first quarter. The Aggies picked up their energy in the second quarter, finishing on a 15-3 run to close out the half with a 31-19 lead.
Led by double-doubles from Jones and junior center Ciera Johnson, as well as a career night for senior guard Jasmine Williams, Texas A&M continued to extend its lead throughout the second half. They pushed their lead to 51-35 after the third quarter, and then clamped down on defense in the fourth to finish strong to earn their ninth 20-plus point win of the season.
TEAM NOTES
· The Aggies forced Florida to shoot 27.1% from the floor, the lowest percentage a team has had against them all year. It's the fifth time this season they have held an opponent to under 30% shooting.
· Texas A&M outscored Florida in the paint, 40-18, putting up a season-high 21 second-chance points.
· The Aggies had just eight turnovers in the game, marking the third time this season they have committed single-digit turnovers.
· For the fourth time this season, Texas A&M had two players record a double-double in the same game.
· Texas A&M used a starting lineup of Aaliyah Wilson, Shambria Washington, Kayla Wells, N'dea Jones and Ciera Johnson for the second time this season.
INDIVIDUAL NOTES
· Senior guard Jasmine Williams played 22 minutes and scored 13 points, both of which were career highs.
· Junior forward N'dea Jones led the team with 19 points and 13 rebounds for her sixth straight double-double.
· Junior center Ciera Johnson had 16 points and 10 rebounds for her sixth double-double and tenth straight game scoring in double figures.
· Jones and Johnson upped their career totals to 18 career double-doubles, which ties them with Danielle Adams (09-11) for fifth all-time on Texas A&M's career list.
· Johnson also blocked a season-high four shots.
UP NEXT
The No. 12 Aggies will travel to take on Alabama at Coleman Coliseum on Thursday, January 23rd at 7 p.m. on SEC Network+.
POSTGAME QUOTES
Texas A&M Head Coach Gary Blair
Opening statement…
"The weekend started with nothing to do with sports. Friday night Jasmine Williams was the keynote speaker at a [1922 Fund] function. It has nothing to do with athletic funding, but for Texas A&M funding scholarships. She brought the house down with her speech. We had Ciera [Johnson], N'dea [Jones], Anna [Dreimane], and Shambria [Washington] also go. We are so much more than just a basketball team with wins and losses. Jasmine Williams might be our most valuable person, didn't say player. Sometimes, that's what the senior that realizes what education, what her role is on the team, and then all of a sudden she just had a perfect weekend.
Saturday morning we had our donor event that we have been waiting for all the pieces to get done in our locker room. Ciera Johnson talked to the 72 people that were there that gave the $2.7 million and helped in other projects around this university. Those are the things that build up to playing the ball game and that had as much to do about being an Aggie and doing the right things.
This weekend we did the right things. Of course when we started the game we were right back in the same shooting rhythm. We started getting the ball inside, Jas Williams came in the second quarter and gave us a huge lift. We started to play Aggie ball, feeling a little bit better about ourselves.
Now, Florida is rebuilding. They have one of the best freshmen in the league, I mean we just faced Rhyne Howard, who can arguably be called the best player in the country. She's that good. Now all of a sudden this young kid, [Lavender] Briggs, on Florida I think has a chance to be that big time player. I've got to worry about my team. I've got to worry about if we are nominating for all these accolades, we have four players up for awards. There is only three from the SEC in each category. I told my kids to look in the mirror first and realize who we are. See what we can do to help our basketball team. We took ownership of how we played. We are where we are right now 3-2 and Alabama coming up."
On making up for Chennedy Carter not playing…
"They weren't making up for [Chennedy] Carter, we've been through that. It was trying to please ourselves more than trying to make up for Carter. She will get back, our kids needed to own up, I needed to own up as a coach. So I have got to coach better to instill the confidence in my team and they can execute. Nothing to do with Carter, it had more to do with each one of us to live up to who we are."
On having the loose balls go A&M's way today…
"First on the floor. Those are what excite the people in the stands, I love anything that involves energy. Today we had energy. We played like it, particularly some of my kids off the bench played with the energy that we had to have. I was very pleased with that."
Junior Forward N'dea Jones
On what they did to get over the slow start…
"We felt like the shots that we were taking were still good, they just weren't going. Our mindset was just to keep shooting because eventually the ball would just go in. We knew that we needed to get offensive rebounds, if the ball wasn't going in to just help our confidence of seeing the ball through the goal. I think honestly just shooting the ball and running our offense."
On what sparked the second quarter run…
"I think it was our defense and rebounding that sparked that. Offensively, I think we just really tried to focus on passing and going from a good shot to a great shot, instead of just settling. That was also a mindset."
On Jasmine Williams …
"Her defense was really good, you could tell that she was locked in. We worked on plays during practice and she was defending them very well. We knew that she was locked in, so it made us all lock in on defense because she was going hard every possession. You just want to go hard for your teammates, and she brought that energy on defense that we needed."
Senior Guard Jasmine Williams
On what she did to give the team energy...
"My persona is energy, I tend to bring energy when I am on or off the court, so I just tried to play my game, and play within myself, not worry about mistakes. I wanted to go and do what I know how to do."
On a career-high night …
"I was just trying to knock down shots that I knock down every day in practice. I told myself, not to worry about the mistakes that are enviable because basketball."
