Horns have won the last three games played against A&M. That win on Jan. 11, 2012 snapped an 11 game A&M winning streak. Texas leads the series 61-23 with this game Sunday being the 85th game in the series. I believe this game marks the first time both have been ranked in the top five. Texas comes in with an 9-0 record while A&M brings an 11-0 record. The Horns and Aggies are two of seven undefeated teams as of Friday. On Sunday, one team will leave Little Rock, AK with their first loss of the season while the other enjoy Christmas as one of the few undefeated teams left. A&M has two players leading the way in scoring: Courtney Walker (# 33, 5-8 Jr. G) at 16.3 ppg and Courtney Williams (# 1, 6-1 Jr. G/F) at 13.3 ppg. Jordan Jones (# 24, 5-6 Jr. G) is just a shade off from joining them as a double figure scorer with 9.9 ppg. Six others average between 5-7 and 4.1 ppg. Jada Terry (# 12, 6-3 Soph. C) is hitting an outstanding 73.0% from the field. Khaalia Hillsman (# 00, 5-6 Fr. C) is making 56.3% of her shots while Rachel Mitchell (# 23, 6-7 Jr. C) is hitting 50.0%. Walker (48.3%), Williams (46.3%), Jones (44.6%) and Tori Scott (# 15, 5-10 Sr. G) (46.2%) are the top shooters from the perimeter for the Aggies. The main shooters for A&M are Walker (70-145), Williams (38-82) and Jones (37-83). Williams (11.7 shots per game) has accumulated her totals in only seven games. Walker is averaging 13.2 shots per game. In total shots, no one else has more than 50 FG attempts. Jones (11-34, 32.4%), Taylor Cooper (#3, 6-0 Soph. F; 6-20, 30.0%) and Walker (6-15, 40.0%) are the primary threats from BTA with no other player having more than six attempts. Walker is the leader in FTs made and attempted with 33-37 (89.2%). Second in attempts is Achiri Ade (# 35, 6-1 Sr. F) at 17-32 for 53.1%. Jones has made the second most FTs, hitting 24-31 (77.4%). Williams is quickly climbing the FT attempts ladder as she is fourth with 25 FTs attempted in only seven games. Ade tops the Aggies in rebounding with an average of 7.2 rpg. Williams is second with 6.1 rpg. Hillsman adds 4.6 rpg while Jones pitches in with 4.5 rpg. In assists, Walker (25), Williams (23) and Curtyce Knox (# 11, 5-7 Soph. G) with 21 all have reached 20+ assists for the season. But Jones dominates this category with 76 assists. Four players are the leaders in blocks: Mitchell with 11, Terry, Hillsman and Ade each with ten. Jones with 17 steals leads Walker (15 steals), Chelsea Jennings (# 13, 5-9 Jr. G) with 13 steals and Knox with 12 steals as the four Aggies with double digit steals. Jones and Walker are the only players to have started all 11 games. 8 others have at least one start. Starters for the last game A&M played were Walker, Williams, Jones, Hillsman and Jennings. Four players average at least 20 minutes per game: Walker (32.1 mpg), Jones (29.8 mpg), Williams (26.6 mpg) and Ade (20.2 mpg). Six others average in the teens. Of the 14 players on the roster, nine have played in all games. One has played in ten, another in nine and Williams has played in all seven games she has been available for. That is at least an 11 player rotation that A&M uses with another player available who has averaged double digit minutes in nine games. Horns have two active players in double figures: Kelsey (13.7 ppg) and Nneka (12.7 ppg). A third, Ariel (10.6 ppg) is out indefinitely with an ankle injury. Four others average between 8.0 and 6.2 ppg. Kelsey (58-92, 62.0%), Nneka (45-74, 60.8%) and Empress (25-72, 34.7%) are the main shooters for the Horns. Imani, in her first action of the season, hit 2-3 FGs for 66.7% to lead the team in FG%. Kelsey (62.0%), Nneka (60.8%), Brianna (35-63, 55.6%) and Nekia (14-28, 50.0%) are all making at least half of their shots from the field. Brooke (12-30, 40.0%) and Brady (7-23, 30.4%) have been the main threats from BTA for Texas. Six others have also connected from BTA while Kelsey and Nekia are looking to hit their first trey. Texas’ best FT shooter by percentage is sitting out this game. Ariel has hit on 27-31 for 87.1% to lead the team in FT %, and rank second in FTs made and attempted. Brady (17-20, 8.0%) and Tasia (13-16, 76.5%) are the only others besides Ariel that are making at least 70% of their FTs. Nneka has been the most successful in getting to the FT line with a team leading 42 FTs attempted. The flip side is that she has only converted 24 for 57.1%, well off her career FT% of 69.3% coming into the season.Nneka has been a tear the last four games, averaging double digit rebounds, to raise her season average to a team leading 9.2 rpg. Kelsey (6.4 rpg) and Brianna (4.8 rpg) provide strong support on the boards. Imani grabbed four rebounds in nine minutes in her first game. Texas is averaging 17.1 assists per 29.8 made FGs a game (57.4% of FGs are assisted). A&M averages 16.6 assists on 28.4 FGs made (58.5% of FGs are assisted). But where A&M has one primary passer (Jones), Texas has every player except two averaging at least one assist a game. Brady is at the top with 3.1 apg with Celina at 2.9 apg and Empress at 2.4 apg. Brianna and Brooke top the active players with 11 steals each. Nneka is one steal away from reaching double digits while Kelsey and Brady check in with 7 steals each. Nneka (16) and Kelsey (10) are the leading shotblockers for the Horns. Horns have basically an 11 player rotation—12 once Ariel returns. Kelsey, Nneka and Empress have started all nine games for the Horns. Five others have rotated in and out of the starting lineup. For the last game, Celina and Brady joined those three in the starting lineup. Brady has started the last four games. Six players are averaging 20+ mpg with Kelsey’s 27.1 mpg tops. Four others are averaging between 10 and 19 mpg. Projected starters based on the last game: [pre] Texas A&M Nneka (6-1 Sr. F) Williams (6-1 Jr. G/F) Kelsey (6-5 Soph. C) Hillsman (6-5 Fr. C) Brady (5-11 RS Jr. G) Jennings (5-9 Jr. G) Empress (5-7 Jr. G) Walker (5-8 Jr. G) Celina (5-8 Jr. G) Jones (5-6 Jr. G) [/pre] Neither team can claim a big height advantage. The rotation for each is in double figures. Fatigue should not be a factor favoring either team. While it won’t happen all the time, Nneka and Williams should matchup at times. That will be a fun battle to watch. Williams might be faster but Nneka should be strong. Who is quicker, I couldn’t say. The centers will also be key inside. Texas has the experience with Soph. Kelsey having a year of playing experience on Frosh Hillsman. Walker will be the focus primarily for Empress and Brianna. For A&M, the issue will be putting sufficient pressure on the Texas guards to keep them from getting clean passes inside to the posts. Both teams like to fastbreak so getting back to avoid giving up easy layups will be key to keeping the other from getting on a run. A&M is much more a perimeter team while Texas will play to their strength inside. There will be a lot of individual matchups in this game worth watching as the game unfolds. TEAM STATISTICS Texas (9-0) A&M (11-0) -------------------------------------------------------------- SCORING.................. 690 817 Points per game........ 76.7 74.3 Scoring margin......... +24.5 +20.4 FIELD GOALS-ATT.......... 268-578 312-669 Field goal pct.......... .464 .466 FG made per game. 29.8 28.4 FG att. per game… 64.2 60.8 3 POINT FG-ATT........... 32-111 30-90 3-point FG pct.......... .288 .333 3-pt FG made per game.. 3.6 2.7 3-pt FG att. per game….. 12.3 8.2 FREE THROWS-ATT.......... 122-189 163-242 Free throw pct.......... .646 .674 F-Throws made per game. 13.6 14.8 FTs attempted per game... 21.0 22.0REBOUNDS................. 404 502 Rebounds per game...... 44.9 45.6 Rebounding margin...... +15.0+8.2 ASSISTS.................. 154 183 Assists per game....... 17.1 16.6 TURNOVERS................ 131 166 Turnovers per game..... 14.6 15.1 Turnover margin........ +4.6 +1.3 Assist/turnover ratio.. 1.2 1.1 STEALS................... 81 83 Steals per game........ 9.0 7.5 BLOCKS................... 35 55 Blocks per game........ 3.9 5.0 WINNING STREAK........... 9 11 Home win streak........ 7 6 ATTENDANCE............... 23376 25023 Home games-Avg/Game.... 7-3339 6-4170 [pre] Ave. Score by Period: 1st 2nd OT Total --------------------- ---- ---- ---- ----- Texas................ 40.1 35.2 1.3 76.7 Texas A&M....... 35.5 38.8 - 74.3 [/pre] Texas usually gets off to a fast start in the first half and slows down a bit in the second half. A&M reverses that pattern. Both approaches end up with the teams winning by an average of 20+ pts a game. This should be a close game. A&M is slightly better at FTs and 3pters but Texas comes in with a far bigger rebounding margin. And Texas is taking care of the ball just a bit better than A&M. It remains to see whose pressure causes the other to buckle and turn the ball over. Both teams can apply full court pressure resulting in turnovers or steals. From texassports.com: No. 3/3 Women’s Basketball preview: No. 4/5 Texas A&M (Dec. 21, 2014) From the A&M website: Women Set For Top 4 Clash In SEC/Big 12 Challenge A&M Coach Gary Blair video interview: Women's Presser: Tuning up for Texas Texas will play the early game at 12:30 PM CST on Sunday followed by OU vs Arkansas at 3:00 PM. Both games will be televised on the SEC network. Radio for the Texas game will be on 103.1 FM iHeart Austin.
From the AAS: No. 3 Texas to face No. 4 Texas A&M in battle of unbeaten One of the things Coach Aston looks for in players:
Classy act by Coach Blair to start off the presser by mentioning a UT player passing away and later in the interview he praises Baylor, Texas and A&M for what they are doing in the state. I like that coach. That's the way the coaches at all schools inside the state should be.
damn, Nneka picks up foul #1 by running over an aggie in the paint while coming down to set up. Needs to be more aware. She's very important to our advantage inside.
Horns have gone a bit cold and are making unforced TOs. Bad combination. But as mentioned, this will be a game of runs. Horns have to weather this A&M run and come back with one of their one.
A&M's perimeter game is outperforming our inside game after a strong start by the Texas posts. Of course, Horns are shooting a lot of outside shots.
dang, foul on Texas with 2 second left. tied at 31 all. A&M shooting two FTs, maybe. being reviewed. make that 4.7 seconds left.
aggie fans upset cuz halftime announcers called them Texas Tech. Bet she was reminded quickly about her mistake.
bad entry pass to start the half, aggie steal and a foul to put them on the FT line. bad way to start the half for the Horns.
their guards are outplaying ours and we can't get our posts involved. having trouble hitting the outside shot as well. Horns need to answer soon or this game will get out of hand.
still time to make a run and still within striking distance but we are getting very little from our guards re scoring.
