COLLEGE STATION, Texas — The Texas A&M women’s basketball team took down No. 25 Ole Miss Sunday afternoon to wrap up their 6 game homestand. Now the Aggies continue their gauntlet of a schedule as they head to Columbia to take on No. 2 South Carolina.
“In terms of our prep and our approach, we approach it the same way in terms of the two day out, one day out, what we do, what our strategy is,” head coach Joni Taylor said. “But, there's some things that you definitely address with the team a little differently just as it relates to the atmosphere, their dynasty, their mindset, you know, they have what we are trying to build.”
“We got to get out on shooters we have to get back in transition and get our matchup set correctly,” graduate student guard Sahara Jones said. “We have to be in a set defense. We got to talk to each other because of course it's going to be loud in their gym and we're at their place and it's a hard place to play and we can't stop. We have to continue to keep going no matter what the scoreboard says or how the game is going like we've been doing in the last two games we played.”
The Maroon and White seem to find their spark in the second half of games but in order to have long term success they need get out to a faster start.
“Our schedule doesn't get any easier in the league that we play in, so it's just showing it, showing them the difference between the 1st and 2nd quarter and the 3rd and 4th, we look like two completely different teams and we can't do that,” Taylor said. “So it's just continuing to show it to them, stopping them in practice when there is slippage, when it doesn't look the way it's supposed to look and making sure that they understand what it needs to be all the time.”
The Aggies pride themselves on their defense and earlier this year Taylor felt her team wasn’t where they needed to be but after holding the Rebels to just 6 points in the fourth quarter on Sunday, she’s pleased with the progress on that side of the floor.
“Obviously, it's something that I want to do at a very high level, and I think that we've been able to show really good spurts, defensively of just how we can impact the game,” Taylor said. “To hold Ole Miss or any team for that matter without a field goal in the 4th quarter is really impressive, and I think it just shows again what we are capable of.”
The Aggies will take on the Gamecocks Thursday afternoon at Colonial Life Arena in Columbia. Tipoff is set for 4pm on ESPN2.
