WBB: Ags beat Arkansas on Senior Night

The Women’s Bouncy Ball team honored the seniors on Sunday afternoon before taking on the Arkansas Razorbacks at Reed Arena. A’ja Ellison and Caylinne Martin were honored along with the senior student managers.

A&M started off shooting 1-7, which allowed Arkansas to briefly take the lead. Carter was the only one scoring early. It was tied at 9 with 3:26 to go in the opening period when Arkansas’ Bailey Zimmerman had passes intercepted and converted to fast break layups on consecutive possessions to give the Ags a 13-9 lead that they never gave up.

Arkansas would get to within 1 in the second period, but A&M stretched the lead to double digits before halftime. The score at the intermission was Ags 51, Ladybacks 26. Carter had 20 points and N’dea Jones had 8 rebounds as part of a 24-16 edge on the glass. 8 Arkansas turnovers resulted in 11 first half points for A&M, while Arkansas was only able to get 4 points off 4 turnovers.

Arkansas would outscore the Ags in the third period but only by 18-14, leaving the lead at 55-44 at the end of the third. With 9:04 remaining, Carter was driving the left side of the lane and fell hard on her right hand. She left the game and went to the locker room. When she returned to the bench several minutes later, her right hand was heavily wrapped with her pinky finger taped to her ring finger.

The Ags would handle Carter’s absence and expanded the lead despite committing a burst of turnovers.

Final Score: A&M 66, Arkansas 53.

• Carter led all scorers with 24. That gave her 584 points for the season, which passed Courtney Walker and Danni Williams for the sophomore scoring record at A&M. She also passed Danielle Adams on the career scoring list and is now 10th all time.
• N’dea Jones had her 7th double double of the season with 13 points and 16 rebounds.
• Shambria Washington had 9 assists.
• Arkansas was led by Chelsea Dungee wit 15 and Malica Monk with 13.
• The win means that the Ags ended up with their best regular season W-L record since the National Championship season (2010-11). It’s only the second time A&M has won 12 or more SEC regular season games. The 2013-14 team was 13-3 in the SEC regular season.

Elsewhere

The rest of the SEC finished play before the Ags and Hogs were done. For the most part, the favored teams won, although several had close calls. A&M finished the regular season with conference losses to LSU, S. Carolina, Mizzou, and Mississippi State. All but S. Carolina are on the other side of the bracket in the SEC tourney.

Up next

• TBD (Auburn, Bama, or Vandy)
• Friday, March 8, 2019 approx 7:30 CST
• Bon Secours Wellness Arena in Greenville, SC
• 2019 SEC Women’s Basketball Tournament

The tournament starts on Wed, March 6, 2019 in, but with the 3 seed, the Ags won’t play until the third day. A&M will meet the winner of the 7/10 game from Thursday in the second game of the evening session on Friday night. That game will put 6 seed Auburn against the winner of Wednesday’s 11-14 game between Alabama and Vanderbilt.

The question on everyone’s mind is how bad was the injury to Carter’s right pinky and how will it affect her ability to play in the upcoming games? There was no indication from the post-game interviews. The double bye was valuable in any case, but may prove to be even more valuable depending on what the injury is.