No. 5 Irish Snap Aggie Win Streak
LAS VEGAS – No. 22 Texas
A&M (8-4) saw its eight-game win streak snapped on Friday night
with an 83-74 loss to No. 5 Notre Dame (9-1) in the championship game
of the World Vision Classic Cox Pavilion. It was the first meeting
between the two teams since A&M defeated Notre Dame, 76-70, at the
2011 NCAA National Championship game on April 5, 2011, in Indianapolis.
A&M
junior center Kelsey Bone led all players with 28 points and also had a
team-high 10 rebounds. She was named to the all-tournament team, having
averaged 27 points and 10 rebounds per game and shooting 39-of-46
during the three-day tournament. Courtney Walker and Kristi Bellock
also posted double-figure points against the Irish with 12 and 11,
respectively. A&M senior point guard Adrienne Pratcher led all
players with eight assists.
Notre Dame had four
players in double-digit points, including tournament MVP Skylar
Diggins, who had 24 points. Natalie Achonwa added 22 points and led all
players with 14 rebounds. Twelve of Achonwa’s points came on free
throws as Notre Dame was 21-of-25 from the line while A&M was
6-of-10.
The Aggies got out to a quick start,
jumping out to a 14-6 lead in the first five minutes, but it would be
A&M’s largest lead of the night. In a game that saw seven ties and
seven lead changes, the experienced Irish began to chip away, taking
their first lead at 23-21 at the 8:20 mark. A&M held its last lead
of the half at 27-26 before Notre Dame made several short runs, with
Aggie freshman guard Peyton Little hitting two clutch three-pointers to
keep A&M within striking distance at 36-33.
Notre
Dame got a bucket at the end of the half to take a 44-37 lead heading
into the intermission, but A&M would start strong in the second
half to retake the lead at 48-46 with 15:59 remaining following a
basket by Bone. Just as the youthful Aggies took the lead, Notre Dame
countered, erupting for 13 unanswered points to put the Irish up,
59-48, at the 11:16 mark. A&M twice managed to cut the gap to five
points, the last coming at 65-60 with 7:21 left in the game. Notre Dame
went on to build its largest lead at 77-65 with 4:02 remaining, and the
Aggies could get no closer than nine points for the reminder of the
game.
The Aggies will take a break for Christmas
and then return to Reed Arena on Dec. 28 to play host to Prairie View
A&M. Tip is set for 7:30 p.m.
Postgame quotes:
Texas A&M Head Coach Gary Blair:
(on the positives of the game)
If
there’s been any basketball games this year better in the country, I’d
like to see it on film because this was a great basketball game. We
started off the game running our offense tremendously. Skylar Diggins
upped the pressure on defense and our point guards started having
problems. We turned it over 17 times in the first half, all against
half-court pressure and traps, but we shot 60 percent. That’s how well
we were shooting the ball.
We made some
adjustments at half. We went into a match-up zone trying to slow down
their backdoor plays. That worked for a while because we went from
eight down to one or two up. The match-up zone worked for a while, then
they were running their man offense against it and they still kept
getting that little pick-and-pop and drive off of it. Skylar played
like an All-American. That is why she’ll be the No. 2 or No. 3 draft
pick in the country. I think we all know who will be No. 1.
I’m
so proud of these kids. When you look at McBride and Diggins and you
look at Walker, my freshman, Pratcher who has never started for me
until this year and Jordan Jones, a freshman. I thought we held our
own. We couldn’t stop them from scoring, but they were having a hard
time stopping us. If we would have just made a few of the key baskets;
our transition offense really hurt us tonight. We’d get a turnover,
couldn’t score. They would force a turnover; they would shoot layups.
It’s hard to keep catching up, but I was proud of those freshmen.
Little had a very good tournament. Jordan Jones played better today.
Courtney Williams is coming along. I thought Courtney Walker or
Pratcher easily could have been on the all-tournament team.
I’m
happy for our kids because when you think about it, where we’ve come,
kids going to both summer sessions, going to Europe for 10 days, coming
back, fall practice, playing the nation’s hardest schedule in preseason
and then all of a sudden look at where we are today. If we would have
had this game the first game of the year, we probably would have gotten
beat by 25, but that is how we are closing the gap right now. We are
starting to play smarter.
(On Kelsey Bone’s play throughout the tournament)
Of
all the years and all the All-American post players, I’ve never had a
post player miss two shots in one game, two in the second game and two
in this game, and they have pretty good post defenders. Kelsey Bone put
on an All-American performance, not an all-SEC performance tonight. And
then at the same time, Diggins on their team put on an All-American
performance, but that is what it is all about.
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