WBB: Aggies spoil Schaefer's homecoming, dismiss Bulldogs 73-35

It was a reunion of sorts on Sunday afternoon as Aggie and former A&M assistant Vic Schaefer brought his Mississippi State Bulldogs to Reed Arena in hopes of upsetting the No. 21 Texas A&M women’s basketball team.

However, A&M head coach Gary Blair and his squad had other plans, dismissing the upstart Bulldogs 73-35 in front of 5,318 fans. With the victory, the Aggies now sit at 15-4 on the year and remain the only team undefeated in SEC play at 5-0.

Junior Achiri Ade had 14 points and nine rebounds to lead A&M, while Courtney Walker added 16 and Courtney Williams produced 15 in the win.

“I think we were well prepared,” said Walker. “We had some really long practices the last couple of days to prepare for the fact that they knew all of our plays. We knew we needed to execute more since they knew our plays, and we focused on getting to the hole and being aggressive.”

As they have done many times this season, the Aggies jumped out to an early first half lead and took control of the contest in the early going.

A&M ran into first half foul trouble that forced them to play without starters Karla Gilbert, Williams and Ade for the latter part of the period. Fortunately, a stock-piled bench allowed the Aggies to grow their lead to 13 at the break, even with three starters out of the game.

“That’s what separates us from most teams in the SEC,” said point guard Jordan Jones in regards to A&M’s bench play. “Our starters are very capable of scoring and playing defense, but it’s also the people that come off the bench.

“We give everybody reps in practice and that prepares us well. Everyone that comes in plays with confidence and is able to play within their role, and it shows in our team chemistry."

After giving up a double-digit second-half lead against South Carolina on Thursday night, the Aggies were determined to prevent the same from happening on Sunday. A 10-0 A&M run over the first 3:10 of the second half opened up a 23-point Aggie lead, and closed the door on any hopes of a Bulldog comeback.

“The coaches are always talking about the first five minutes of each half,” stated Walker. “We always want to come out and throw the first punch. They always stress not giving hope to teams, especially in the second half. Coming off of South Carolina and blowing that big lead, we just wanted to come out harder than we did last game.”

Not only was the A&M offense clicking in the second half, but the Aggies produced one of their best defensive periods of the season, limiting Mississippi State to just 19% from the floor.

In all, the tough A&M defense held the Bulldogs to a season low of 35 points on just 20% (12-of-59) shooting. The Aggies also killed Mississippi State on the glass, outrebounding the Bulldogs 51-29.

“There is no way that I thought the game would finish with this type of score,” said Blair. “I thought it was a great team effort. The kids responded to our coaching at halftime and we had good execution [in the second half].”

While Blair was pleased with the performance of his team, he knows that they cannot relax and that he must keep pushing his players if they are to keep getting better.

“We’ve come a long way and the team is improving,” concluded Blair. “We have to stay on them and can’t take anything for granted. We have to keep doing the little things right.”

The Aggies now travel to Columbia, Missouri and look to stay perfect in conference play as they take on the Missouri Tigers (13-5, 2-3) at 7 p.m. on Thursday evening.