Courtney Walker leads Aggies to win over Little Rock, 69-39

Every year at this time, college students are taking a well-deserved break.  After the oft-sleepless semester has passed, many kids spend their winter break passed out on the couch.

Student athletes don't always get that luxury.  They continue to pour hours into their craft when most of their peers are resting. Sometimes it pays off.

In Courtney Walker's case, it certainly did.


On Tuesday afternoon, Courtney Walker scored a career-high 29 points, leading Texas A&M (9-3) to a 69-39 win over the Little Rock Trojans (2-7), the same team that ousted the Aggies from the NCAA Tournament in March.

Walker was the story of the game from the beginning. During the first ten minutes of action, the senior was 6-7 from the field for 12 points. She hit all but one of the Aggies' field goals in the first period, piloting the Ags to a 15-6 lead.

"I think I just was able to relax and find my shots today," Walker said. "I was just letting it come off easy," she continued. "We weren't really complicating it today. It was just a lot of bread-and-butter sets."

The second quarter was all about Little Rock's Alexius Dawn.

Doing her best Courtney Walker impersonation, the 5'4" senior put up 12 points of her own in the second frame on 5-7 shooting. With the Ags shooting better than 50%, Dawn, who finished with 19 points, kept the Trojans in the game, and Texas A&M carried a 30-22 lead into the locker room at halftime.

After keeping it close in the second quarter, the Trojans had no answer for the Aggies in the third. Texas A&M shot 76.9% in the ten minutes after halftime, scoring 27 in the third period and ending the quarter on a 19-4 run. The Ags held a 57-30 lead as the fourth quarter rolled around.

With the game well in hand, Gary Blair and the Aggies elected to slow things down in the final frame. Courtney Walker sunk a few more shots, scoring seven points to put the game away, 69-39, in comfortable fashion.

"I'm happy for Walker," Blair said. "I don't think there's a player in the country that has a better mid-range game than her. I'd like to take credit for it, but I can't. She had that shot when she came out of high school."

The Aggie women are officially on Christmas break now. Their next opponent won't come to town until well after Santa does. Texas A&M will face Prairie View A&M next Tuesday, the 29th, at 2 p.m. at Reed Arena.