COLLEGE STATION, Tex. (1-2-05) A second half rally by the North Texas women’s basketball team fell short and Texas A&M came away with their ninth straight victory 75-60 at Reed Arena.
The Mean Green (5-7), who trailed by as many as 21 points in the first half, trimmed the Aggie lead down to six points midway through the second half before Texas A&M (9-1) was able to hold off North Texas.
“I was really proud of our effort today,” said North Texas head coach Tina Slinker. “We really fought back when we got down by a lot and the kids really responded to what we were told them at the break”.
After trailing 47-26 late in the first half, the Mean Green used a 19-4 over a span of nine minutes covering the end of the first half and first six minutes of the second half.
The run was fueled by junior guard Erika Bobo, who scored six of her team-high 16 points during the stretch, and the Aggie lead was cut to just 51-45.
The Aggies held a 55-48 lead with 10:18 in the game when two consecutive North Texas turnovers led to five straight points by Texas A&M’s Ashley Bolden and extended the Aggie lead to 60-48 with 9:32 remaining. The Mean Green got as close as 62-53 with 5:15 remaining, but the Aggies closed the game on a 13-7 run.
North Texas committed a season-high 31 turnovers, including 19 in the first hafl as Texas A&M used a full court pressure defense for most of the game create the turnovers.
“We didn’t play as well as we would have liked but we aren’t going to see that kind of pressure defense many more times this year” Slinker said. “We are going to take a lot of things away from this non-conference season and hopefully use them to our advantage when we begin Sun Belt Conference play”.
Sophomore’s Kelsie Edwards and Mia Ajekwu both had double figures with 11 and 10 points respectively for North Texas. Texas A&M was lead by 20 points from freshman Patrice Reado.
North Texas returns to action at home to begin Sun Belt Conference play on January 8 against New Mexico State.
