The Texas A&M women’s basketball team, which came in third, climbed the mountain by defeating South Carolina in fifth place by 65-57 at the Reed Arena to win the Southeastern Conference championship and basically take first place in the NCAA tournament. It was the first A&M regular season title in the league and puts the coach Gary Blair in a privileged position to win his second national championship with his first coming in 2011, when Aggies won everything as a member of the Big 12.
Texas A&M basically won the title when it took control in the third quarter, beating the Gamecocks by 19-8, after having gone up just one point in the interval. They scored the first 10 points of the third period to make the 45-34, with about four minutes left for the third period. The Aggies managed Jordan Nixon going on the attack on the third by hitting two three and cracking the defense against the defense on the other side of the court, forcing seven missed kicks and four turns. They finally opened up a 15-point lead at 52-37 with about three minutes left for the fourth. Head coach of Gamecocks Dawn Staley asked for a time limit to contain the tide and South Carolina scored the last five points of the stanza to reduce the lead to ten in the fourth period.
The Lady Aggies increased their lead to 14 at the start of the fourth period, before South Carolina enjoyed a 9-0 streak, with the first seven points in Zia Cooke, to arrive within 56-51 with about five and a half minutes remaining in the contest. The Gamecocks managed to reduce to three in 57-54 by means of a three-pointer with about five minutes to go and then reduced to three in another three-pointer with about minutes remaining, but that was as close as they got the way from the rest. Aaliyah Wilson pushed the Texas A&M lead to 62-57 in a basket with less than 90 seconds remaining and Kayla Wells added two free throws with 12 seconds left to guarantee victory.
Wilson led all scorers with 17 points, while N’dea Jones added 16 more points.
The win was the Aggies’ tenth consecutive win and the ninth time they beat a ranked opponent this season, which is more than any other program. It allowed them to finish with 22-1 overall, 13-1 in the league and 13-0 at home.