Texas A&M
19-1,10-1SEC
Tennessee
12-5,6-3SEC
No. 6 Aggies Notch Eighth Ranked Win of Season
Feb 14, 2021 | Women's Basketball
BRYAN-COLLEGE STATION, Texas (AP)--Destiny Pitts had a season-high 18 points and No. 6 Texas A&M used strong free throw shooting late to hold on for an 80-70 win over No. 16 Tennessee on Sunday.
It's the seventh straight victory for Texas A&M (19-1, 10-1 SEC) and improves the Aggies to 8-0 against ranked opponents this season.
Texas A&M had a two-point led late in the fourth quarter when Pitts was fouled on a 3-pointer and made all three free throws to make it 73-68. Jordan Nixon added two free throws after an offensive foul by Rennia Davis before a basket by Davis cut the lead to 5 with less than a minute to go.
Nixon made two more free throws after the Lady Volunteers fouled her with 37 seconds remaining. Davis missed a 3-pointer on the other end and Nixon was two more times in the final seconds and made 3 of 4 free throws to secure the win.
This game was originally scheduled for Dec. 31 but was postponed twice because of coronavirus issues.
Davis had 25 points to lead Tennessee (12-5, 6-3) after missing the team's last game because of a medical reason.
Nixon finished with 15 points and Kayla Wells and Aaliyah Wilson added 13 each for Texas A&M.
The Aggies had a two-point lead entering the fourth but were down by 1 early in the quarter before a 5-0 run, with a 3-pointer from Pitts, put them back on top 59-55 with about seven minutes to go.
Texas A&M had extended its lead to 6 later in the fourth before a 5-2 spurt by the Volunteers cut the deficit to 65-62 with four minutes remaining.
A jump shot by Wilson extended Texas A&M's lead to 5 points before Tennessee scored the next four points to get within 67-66 with about two minutes remaining.
Pitts added a 3-pointer for the Aggies soon after that, but Davis made a jumper for the Volunteers to cut the lead to 70-68 with 90 seconds to go.
Tennessee led by 2 after a free throw by Jordan Walker late in the third quarter. But the Aggies scored the last four points on the quarter with layups from Pitts and N'dea Jones to take a 51-49 lead into the fourth quarter.
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POSTGAME NOTES
RECORDS & SERIES NOTES
- Texas A&M climbs to 19-1 through the first 20 games of the season, with a 10-1 record in Southeastern Conference play.
- Tennessee drops to 12-5 overall with a 6-3 mark against SEC opponents.
- In the all-time series between the Aggies and Lady Volunteers, Tennessee now holds a narrow 8-7 advantage. Texas A&M is 4-1 against the Lady Vols in Aggieland.
- The Maroon & White picked up their seventh win all-time against the Associated Press No. 16 team.
TEAM NOTES
- The Aggies now lead the country in wins (19) and ranked wins (eight).
- Texas A&M climbs to 12-0 in the friendly confines of Reed Arena this year, the best home start since the 2014-15 season.
- The Aggies once again enjoyed a 10-point lead against their opponent, marking the 17th game that they have enjoyed a double-digit cushion.
- Following a very even first three quarters of play, the Aggies pulled away in the fourth period after making 4-of-5 shots in the final seven minutes to secure the 80-70 victory.
- A&M's stalwart perimeter defense helped force Tennessee into 17 turnovers compared to the Aggies seven, allowing the Maroon & White to win the battle for points off turnovers, 18-4.
- Bench play proved to be critical for the Aggies, as the team's second unit outscored the Lady Volunteers 22-7.
- Defensively, the Aggies out-blocked UT 5-3 and swiped away 10 steals compared to the Lady Vols two.
- Four Aggies scored in double-figures for the ninth time this season.
- Texas A&M started its 20th consecutive game of the season with a lineup of Aaliyah Wilson, Jordan Nixon, Kayla Wells, N'dea Jones and Ciera Johnson.
INDIVIDUAL NOTES
- Destiny Pitts set a new season high in scoring with 18 points on 5-of-7 shooting from the field.
- The Detroit, Michigan, native recorded 11 points in the fourth quarter alone, hitting a pair of crucial 3-pointers and making 5-of-6 free throws to help ice the game.
- Pitts finished with a team-high plus-21 plus/minus in 18 minutes off the bench.
- Kayla Wells drained her 100th career 3-point basket with 1:51 remaining in the first quarter.
- The Dallas, Texas, native scored 13 points, marking her 10th double-digit scoring effort of the season and 60th such performance of her career.
- Jordan Nixon proved to be effective on both ends of the court, scoring 15 points while ripping away a career-high five steals.
- The New York, New York, native made an eye-popping 12 of her 14 free throw attempts, setting a new career high for makes at the charity stripe.
- Nixon scored in double figures for the sixth time this season and 7th time in her career.
- Ciera Johnson finished tied for the team-high rebounding mark with seven boards, also contributing 10 points.
- The Duncanville, Texas, native scored in double figures for the 16th time this season and 64th time in her career.
- Johnson also set a new season high in blocks, swatting away four Lady Volunteer shots down low. Her previous season high was two, set against Kentucky on Jan. 10.
- Johnson is now five points shy of joining the 1,000-point club at Texas A&M.
- Aaliyah Wilson finished with 13 points and three rebounds, dropping double digits in points for the 15th time in the 2020-21 campaign and 34th time in her career.
- N'dea Jones hauled in seven rebounds in the contest, placing her career rebounding total at 980. That leaves the Lawrenceville, Georgia, native only 22 rebounds shy of the Texas A&M program record of 1,002, currently held by Anriel Howard.
- McKinzie Green finished with a career-high-tying five assists to go along with four points.
- Head coach Gary Blair sees his career record improve to 832-331 overall with a 424-168 mark since taking the helm at Texas A&M in 2003-04.
UP NEXT
Texas A&M remains at Reed Arena this week, as the Aggies welcome the Missouri Tigers for a 7 p.m. tipoff with streaming available through SEC Network+ and the ESPN app.
POSTGAME QUOTES
TEXAS A&M QUOTES
Head Coach Gary Blair
Opening Statement…
"McKinzie Green and [Destiny] Pitts both played great off the bench. We outscored them 22 to seven. McKinzie was very instrumental in speeding up the offense when we had to have it. Interior passing was very good between the post players the majority of the game. They knew they were not going to be the focal point of the offense until we had the right mismatches, and we exploited that down the line. [Jordan] Nixon's free throws, [Kayla] Wells and Pitts, that's 21 out of 24. I had my best free-throw shooters go to the line at the right time. I thought we did a great job of doing that. If you look at 3:14 on the clock, the score is 65-62. Wilson misses two free throws. They miss, we come down when we run a play for Wilson and then she hits a tough 17-foot jump shot. That's how much confidence I had in her. I thought that was the play down the stretch that we had to have to give us a little bit of separation. Our whole game plan was for Ciera [Johnson] to play high the majority of the time to keep [Tamari] Key out of the circle. Ball screen, rescreen, but her first screen was good. We were getting shots by Wells and Wilson that we needed the majority of the time. We hit some we missed some but at the same time, we are going to keep working on it. I think Ciera does whatever is needed in that particular ballgame. I think another key is, I can't figure this up. We had 11 fouls, most of them were shooting fouls and they had 16 free throws, but then we only had seven turnovers. Okay, that's a little bit unusual of course. You say we didn't have enough paint points. That was by design because of their size underneath. What we wanted to do was hurt them with great shots at the elbow and get a little bit of transition."
On the similarities between this team and the 2011 team…
"It's not the record because our record wasn't as good. Back then, I think we had a couple of losses. But this team really likes each other. I didn't want to disrespect somebody, but I wanted to give Wilson, a little bit of an ovation. She said, Coach I'll be glad to go. Any other year those freshmen would have been playing big time minutes. So, I've got four freshmen, that are as talented as a four that I have that are having to wait behind the transfers right now and the seniors. That doesn't happen everywhere. This is the SEC. The best conference in America. So, sometimes they have to be happy how they're performing. One of our all-time best players you have hardly seen is Kay Kay Green from Chicago. She has gotten so much better in practice, simulating the SEC guards, but I've got to convince that kid that she's going to be a big-time player here at A&M, and she's got the best attitude in the whole world. That's what I love about this team.
On the free throw opportunities in today's game...
"The most important thing about shooting a free throw is wanting to be there. I've got a lot of kids that want to be there. There's a lot of players men, women, little league, whatever. Oh my god, clock has stopped, everybody's watching me. I got to make it. Our kids work on that every day and if I had a free throw contest between Wells, Nixon, Pitts and throw in Lex, I don't know who would win. I mean, all four of them are big time free-throw shooters and that's how I design my end-of-game situations to make sure the ball is going to be in their hands."
Senior Guard Kayla Wells
On the team's ability to close out tight games…
"Coach Blair talks about how we're so poised and so calm going into the fourth quarter going into close games. We know what we need to do, and we're a veteran team so kudos to that. I just think we don't panic when it comes to those situations."
On getting nervous late in the game…
"I mean for me; I never get nervous. I already know that we are a veteran team and we know what we need to do and every time we pull it out because we do the little things what we need to do in order to win. So usually when it's tight like that we talk to each other and we're like come on guys, let's go we got to pick it up, we got to take it up a notch."
On the lack of fans due to weather conditions…
"It definitely made a difference. We had to kind of create our own energy. I felt like in the beginning of the game I was kind of sleepwalking, just going through the motions and you can't be like that. We got some energy from our bench, and they did a great job encouraging us and trying to be loud and trying to create energy for ourselves. Making big plays created the energy and we just pulled it out.
Senior Guard Destiny Pitts
On her performance today…
"I mean, I just took what the defense gave me today. I knew they are used to playing like a traditional two big, so it was going to be a mismatch if I was playing at the four for me. So I kind of just took what the defense gave me."
On her shooting in today's matchup…
"A little bit. I mean we just watched a film on it. They kind of struggled in pick and roll so we try to exploit that a little bit. It can be hard for them to step up or do the switch so when I'm able to play the four, I was able to stretch a little more. I had a big come defend on the perimeter. When you're labeled as a shooter, a lot of teams close out hard on you, so I was able to put the ball on the floor too."
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