Texas A&M Head Coach Gary Blair
Opening Statement
"I thought the difference in the ballgame was how we finished the second quarter. We were in as much foul trouble as we were at Florida State. This time, between [Cheah Rael-Whitsitt] and Anna [Dreimane], they came in and stopped it and some other kids made some plays. That was the whole point of being able to rest Ciera [Johnson] and not play her into her third foul. It just wasn't her night tonight. It's been her night for the majority of the season, so we'll go back to work. You had two Texas kids come in here, [Vivian] Gray and [Natasha] Mack, and they are two very good ball players. Gray had nine points in the first quarter and didn't score in the second quarter. I thought that was crucial. She missed some shots and we contested shots. When you're going against a good team that's already played Louisville and Oregon, they've seen teams that are as good or better than us, but I thought our kids responded.


On Chennedy Carter's play tonight
"You look at the stat sheet and say 'Chennedy took so many shots,' but look at how many great shots she hit. One of these days, she's going to go 12-14 and go 9-10 from the line, and that's how hard she is to guard sometimes. Everybody has a different defense that they try to guard her with, but I thought she played a very good game."

On how Kayla Wells compliments Chennedy Carter
"Wells is a pretty good Scottie Pippen, next to Jordan. Sometimes, you have to have two people that work together so long. Remember, those two have been teammates since the fourth or fifth grade. Those kids have known each other that long. They just have a feeling about where the other person is going to be. Wells, when she strokes the ball and hits that three as good as she was, she was just getting open looks and then creating. She's getting better and better."

Women's Basketball: OSU Postgame | Chennedy Carter, Kayla Wells





Junior Guard Chennedy Carter
On A&M's defense
"I think that Coach Starkey really emphasized that we could get after them today. We could get aggressive, make a couple steals, and really turn them over. They made it really easy on us. I think for me, I got out in the passing lanes a couple of times, Shambria [Washington] got out, even Kayla [Wells] was guarding Vivian [Gray], their best player, and made it hard for her. When you shut out their best player it takes away from the team and everyone else getting into their rhythms. It really started with Kayla's defense and we all just picked it up behind her.

On the three-point performance and how they were able to stay hot
"Teams that zone us don't really understand how hard this one [Kayla Wells] and [] [Aaliyah] Wilson really work on their 3-pointers. I mean I work on mine a lot too, but it really comes and goes for me. Kayla is a really consistent shooter and I don't think she gets enough credit for hitting threes consistently night in and night out. It starts there, she puts a lot of time in."

Junior Guard Kayla Wells
On when she felt she would have a good night shooting threes
"After the first one I didn't make it in anymore, I was driving and my teammates found me when I was hot. That was important, when your teammates find you when you're hot, it's more their assists than anything.

On the team's energy
"I just felt like the energy was different. We came out and were ready and excited to play, that was a quality opponent that we played. We were just excited and the energy was there you could just tell, Coach Starkey said he could just tell coming in from warm-ups it was just different. The energy had a big thing to do with it and we were very prepared. We had a really good walk-through, shootaround, and he [Starkey] knew that we were focused."