Texas A&M embarrasses Ole Miss in massive road win, 72-53

Joni Taylor’s squad didn’t win a road game in the SEC in their first 11 tries.

On Thursday night, Texas A&M (16-6, 4-5) picked up its second conference road win in the last two weeks by taking down the Ole Miss Rebels (16-7, 6-4) in Oxford, 72-53.

While both teams started slow, the Aggies were somehow slower.

Ole Miss jumped out to a quick 13-6 lead, but Taylor’s well-timed timeout changed the early momentum of the game. The Aggies finished the first quarter on a 9-3 run to trail by one heading into the second quarter.

With Aicha Coulibaly in early foul trouble, Lauren Ware and Janiah Barker carried the A&M offense to an 11-5 run to start the second quarter. The pair answered every Rebel shot with their own tough buckets.

As the game tightened up before halftime, Endyia Rogers hit her first 3-pointer to give the Aggies a 33-29 lead heading into the final possession of the first half.

However, the fireworks wouldn’t end there…

Ole Miss’s leading scorer in the game at the time, Kennedy Todd-Williams, intentionally elbowed Rogers with 1.4 seconds left after a rebound, and Barker confronted her. 

After a lengthy review, the officials handed out offsetting technical fouls on Barker and Todd-Williams and ejected the latter.

Todd-Williams finished with six points.

Jamie Maury, TexAgs

With the win, the Aggies snapped a four-game losing streak against Ole Miss

The Rebels missed two free throws, and Rogers hit two free throws to give the Aggies a 35-29 lead heading into halftime, following the wild sequence.

The first half was the Barker and Ware show as they scored 12 and 11 points, respectively. Both players nearly reached their scoring averages in one half, but they weren’t done yet.

Todd-Williams was averaging 13 points, five rebounds and five assists in her last five games. Without a key piece for the last 20 minutes, and the Aggies made the Rebels pay.

Barker and Ware continued their dominance, and the Aggies outscored the Rebels 21-7 in the third quarter thanks to a 14-0 run and a nearly seven-minute scoreless drought by the home team.

The most dominant third quarter of the season resulted in a 56-36 lead heading into the final quarter.

Barker finished with a season-high 21 points as the Aggies put the finishing touches on an Oxford bludgeoning.

Ware added 20 points and 11 rebounds for her ninth double-double of the season.

The Aggies entered this game on the bubble as a projected No. 11 seed. Ole Miss entered as a No. 7 seed. Against NCAA Tournament-level competition, A&M played its best game of the season when the Aggies needed it most.

Taylor’s team looks to continue this momentum on Sunday when they travel to Lexington to take on the Kentucky Wildcats at 3 p.m. CT.