WBB: Ags carve up Prairie View 80-38

After returning from LA Coach Blair told his radio show audience and the press that he planned to get minutes for all 11 players who are able to play in the annual game against Prairie View A&M.

It was 15-4 Ags with 6:22 left in the FIrst Quarter when Coach Blair first went to the bench, putting in freshman PG McKinzie Green for Shambria Washington. After N’dea Jones made a putback layup, she was replaced by Chea Rael-Whitsttt. It was 21-4 with 3:16 left in the opening quarter when the rest of the starters went to the bench and the lineup on the floor was Green, Rael-Whitsitt, Aahliyah Jackson, Aaliyah Wilson, and Anna Dreimane. Anna excited the crowd by hitting her first shot right away off a Jackson assist. With 52 seconds left, it looked like Green would get her first fast break off a steal of her Aggie career, but she missed the layup and committed a foul. Blair put Washington back in to end the quarter as you could see the coaches on the bench coaching Green up.

Four starters plus Jasmine Williams came in at 8:14 in the second quarter, which meant that Blair had met his goal of getting 11 players time. Williams was in for Washington. PVAMU got their first points of the quarter on a layup by Diana Rosental with 7:23 left in the half. The Ags kept rotating players and Green came in for Washington with just under 2 minutes to go befoe the break. As the half wore down, PVAMU got the ball and called timeout to set up a final play. But Green got steal and this time she finished the layup to make it 46-19 at halftime.

The second half was more of the same. The Ags were working on their press for much of the game. PVAMU committed 25 turnovers, leading to 32 points off turnovers (14 were fast break points). The Ags dominated inside with a 50-12 edge in points in the paint.

• Carter got her 20 points and also had 3 assists and 3 steals to go with2 turnovers in 24 minutes of play. Jones had a career high 16 points despite playing the fewest minutes of anyone on the team at 13. Johnson was also in double figures for scoring at 10.
• Everyone on the team played 13+ minutes. Only Sham Washington didn’t score, missing on the only shot she tried at the end of the first quarter.
• Jasmine Williams got career highs in points (8) and rebounds (6). She was on the receiving end of a nice assist from Carter and later scored off a multiple fake move to get open.
• Kennedy Paul led the Panthers with 15 points.

Up Next

• Florida State Seminoles
• Sunday Dec 1, 2019 7:30PM CST
• Schollmaier Arena, Ft. Worth, TX
• TV: Fox Sports Southwest. Radio: 1620 AM

The team will take Thanksgiving off and then start preparing for FSU on Friday. For some, the day off will mean going to Associate Head Coach Kally Bond’s home for Thanksgiving dinner.

The Ags and the Seminoles will face off on a neutral site as part of the Maggie Dixon Classic. Or rather, as part of a Maggie Dixon Classic because there are two early season events with the same name honoring the former Army coach who died way too young in 2006 at age 28. In its early years there was one Maggie Dixon Classic played in NYC at Madison Square Garden after the initial event was played at West Point. The Ags played in that one in the National Championship season and again in 2013. After 2015, the event was no longer hosted at MSG. DePaul, where Maggie Dixon was an assistant to HC Doug Bruno, started hosting one Maggie Dixon Classic in 2016, while the other seems to have started in 2018 at TCU, where Maggie’s brother Jaime is the MBB coach. But DePaul still called the event at their place the Maggie Dixon Classic so now there are two. DePaul beat Miami to win the 4 team tourney version. The one we’re playing in is just two nonconference games: Boise State and TCU play first, followed by A&M vs Florida State.

Texas A&M and Florida State have played 3 times over the years. There was a nonconference home and home in the 2007-08 and 2008-09 seasons, where the home team won each time (The Ags won in Dec 2007 with the team that would go to the E8). Then there was a long gap until the Noles were assigned to the College Station subregional in the 2016 NCAA tournament. That one went very badly.

Veteran Coach Sue Semrau has been at FSU since 1997 and she built the program into one that consistently makes the NCAA tournament out of the very competitive ACC. The 2015-16 that knocked us out in the round of 32 made it to the Sweet 16. The next year they would lose to S. Carolina in the Elite 8. They’ve been eliminated in the Round of 32 the past 2 years. This season they come in undefeated (6-0) at #12 in the AP. Likely starters based on their last game vs Florida:

• #15 6-2 RS Sr Tr Kiah Gillespie is on the Naismith Watch list and the Katrina McClain watch list. She played her freshman year at Maryland before transferring to Florida State. She’s third in scoring 13.8 ppg and the leading rebounder 9.8 rpg.
• #32 6-3 So F Valencia Myers adds 7.5 ppg and 5.5 rpg.
• #24 6-1 So G Morgan Jones adds 6.3 ppg and 3.2 rpg.
• #12 5-9 Sr G Nicki Ekhomu leads the team in scoring at 15.5 ppg and assists (22 total). She’s 9-29 from 3 point range.
• #13 5-9 Sr G Nausia Woolfolk is second in scoring 14.8 ppg and leads in 3 pt FG% and steals.

Expect 6.5 Fr C River Baldwin to get significant minutes, especially if the starters have trouble with our front line. Overall FSU is averaging 78.8 ppg which is outscoring opponents by 29.6 and outrebounding them by 14.5. But the quality of the opposition for both teams is on a different level for this game.