Senior Day sees A&M squander 14-point lead in regular-season finale

The losing streak is now 10.

On Sunday afternoon, Texas A&M (10-18, 3-13) raced out of the gates against Arkansas (10-21, 3-13) but ran out of gas late, 80-71.

Texas A&M women’s basketball honored five seniors pregame as part of their 2025 Senior Day.

Sahara Jones, Aicha Coulibaly, Amirah Abdur-Rahim, Lauren Ware, Kyndall Hunter and two managers, Brylie Bond and Blake Bills, spent over 15 years combined in the program and were celebrated for their contributions.

“It’s really special when you have someone in Sahara who has been at one place for five years,” Joni Taylor said. “You don’t find that any more. I still think her best basketball is ahead of her. I don’t think we fully understand how much we’re going to miss having her.”

Unfortunately, the celebration was cut short as the hot-shooting Hogs stole the show.

Jones, Hunter and Ware paced the A&M offense early, combining for 18 points in the first quarter.

Jones — the program’s active leader in scoring, rebounding, minutes and games played — outscored the Razorbacks 8-7 by herself as the Aggies held a 20-7 lead after 10 minutes. Jones finished with a 21-point, 11-rebound double-double in her final game inside Reed Arena.

“I thought we had a great first quarter defensively,” Taylor said. “Then I thought we got loose defensively. Credit them for stepping up to make those threes. That’s not going to be good for us. That’s a margin we can’t make up.”

The Senior Day magic wore off quickly as the Razorbacks answered with a 24-11 quarter to tie the game 31-31 at halftime. Phoenix Stotjin and Kiki Smith combined for 19 points and five 3-pointers in the second quarter to lead the furious Arkansas comeback. The back-court duo ended up combining for 37 points and nine triples for the game.

“That’s a credit to their two players,” Malone said about the second quarter. “They were starting to knock down shots, and we were messing up on defense.”

The visitors’ perimeter shooting was the key to their first-half comeback, and it was a sign of things to come as the Aggies failed to make the necessary adjustments to slow the Hogs down.

Six first-half triples made way for seven in the second half.

With just seven players available, the Aggies just don’t have the depth or production to make up for their opponent making 13 3-pointers and shooting 48.1 percent from deep.

Izzy Higginbottom, who dropped 33 on the Aggies in their first meeting, went off in the third quarter for 10 points and finished with 27 total to lead all scorers. She made A&M’s frontcourt pay with hard drives to the hoop and getting to the free-throw line. When it was all said and done, she made 19 of her 21 free throw attempts, which was nine more attempts at the line than the Aggies took as a team.

Taylor’s team finishes the 2024-25 regular season at 10-18. With the loss to Arkansas, the Aggies will be the No. 16 seed in the SEC Tournament in Greenville, SC, later this week.

“We’re going to continue to play no matter what through the buzzer,” Jones said. “We’re a close team, so it doesn’t surprise us that we continue to fight any time the ball doesn’t go our way. We’re going to continue to do the same thing in the SEC Tournament.”

A&M’s first-round game will be on Wednesday, March 5, at 10 a.m. CT against No. 9 seed Tennessee.

The Lady Vols beat the Aggies by 13 earlier this season before Coulibaly went down with her injury.