Aggies struggle at times but hold off McNeese State

The ball dropped on the 2011 portion of the Texas A&M women's basketball season Friday. When it came down, it often bounced off the rim.

A&M shot 39 percent and did not make a 3-pointer but held on for a 72-62 victory over McNeese State before 6,316 at Reed Arena. The Aggies had to fight off the team that provided their jumping-off point for a national championship run in the first round of last season's NCAA tournament.

A&M played without four players, the most notable being point guard Sydney Carter, who injured her left foot during the Christmas break.

Without Carter, neither A&M's offense nor defense played in synch, and A&M coach Gary Blair said his Aggies were off the mark because they had been off too long.

"I gave our kids eight days off for Christmas, and the four days we've been back, we looked just like what you saw out there," Blair said. "It's my fault completely. I've never given a team eight days in my life. I was bored at Christmas. It's nice to be with your family, but you've got to get back to work. We could have Carter. We can always use Carter, but what are we going to do next year without her?"

By next year, Blair meant next season, but Carter's availability to open 2012 is still undetermined.

"She hurt [her foot] over the Christmas holidays playing pickup," Blair said. "We put it in a boot while she was in Dallas with her high school trainer. She came back and tried to work out but could only go about half of it. We've x-rayed it, and it's not a stress fracture. It's a hot spot and it's very painful. We need her leadership. We need her defense."

A&M's 87-47 win over McNeese State in the NCAA tournament had McNeese's twin guards, Ashlyn and Caitlyn Baggett, pestering their coach to play A&M again to prove they were a better team. They made their point. Ashlyn scored 19 points, and Caitlyn had 18 points and six assists.

"These two are persistently annoying," Cowgirls' coach Brooks Donald Williams said of her sibling guards. "They persistently annoyed me for months to try to add [A&M] to our schedule."

The twins made things hard on A&M at times.

Despite being out rebounded 53-31, McNeese State held a second-half lead and kept the game within striking distance until very late.

"Give the Baggett kids a lot of credit," Blair said. "They know how to use their body, and we know how to jump in there and foul 'em."

Not satisfied with the loss, the siblings helped the Cowgirls keep this season's meeting much more competitive.

"It was very frustrating how we came out and played against A&M in the tournament," Ashlyn Baggett said. "They made us look bad and were a big part in why we looked bad, but we felt we didn't leave it all on the court. It was frustrating, and we had a long offseason thinking about the way we played."

A&M's Tyra White hit two free throws then scored on an assist from Adrienne Pratcher to give the Aggies a 40-37 lead. From there A&M's lead wavered between three and five points for much of the second half.

Center Kelsey Bone countered two baskets and an assist from Caitlyn Baggett by scoring three buckets for A&M. Cierra Windham finally extended the Aggies' lead to 56-49 when she hit two free throws with 6:19 left.

"Tyra didn't play well, but she had to go 40 [minutes] because I didn't have any other scoring options," Blair said. "Bone did a pretty good job on offense. With 15 boards, she was active, but she would have had 25 if she had used the glass."

Bone, who matched White with a team-high 19 points, took control inside early in the game. White hit just 6 of 20 shots from the floor but helped her cause by getting to the free-throw line, where she hit 7 of 11 shots.

"Any time a team takes off, there is going to be a little rust," Bone said. "We had seven and a half days at home. More than the break affecting this game, we are four [players] down and of those four, we are missing Sydney Carter. There was no one to turn and look to. We were looking at each other."

The Cowgirls' Martika Hall fouled out with 4:01 left, taking one of McNeese State's top rebounders out of the game, but McNeese got a high-arching, step-back 3-pointer from Ashlyn Baggett to cut A&M's lead to four. A three-point play from Alexia Standish pushed the A&M lead back to 61-54.

McNeese shot no better from the field than A&M, but hit seven 3-pointers including three from Candace LaCombe.