Carter saves Aggies in win over Iowa State

Sydney Carter has a knack for the dramatic.

Carter hit a pair of free throws with 2.4 seconds left to give 14th-ranked Texas A&M a 66-64 victory over Iowa State on Sunday at Reed Arena in Big 12 women's basketball action.

Carter was speeding down court when she was fouled by ISU's Chelsea Poppens just beyond the 3-point line. Poppens had to guard Carter, who had used a hard screen by teammate Kelsey Bone to break free near midcourt.

"I knew if I drew a foul, free throws are like shooting layups for me," Carter said.

The 5-foot-6 senior showed why she's shooting 85 percent from the free-throw line by scoring her only points in rescuing the Aggies (14-5, 5-3), who overcame an eight-point deficit in the last 17 minutes.

"Thank heavens for Carter," A&M head coach Gary Blair said. "Carter is the only kid we could have gotten down there that fast. She did a good job of making it happen."

Until then she hadn't made anything happen. Carter played only nine minutes in the first half because of foul trouble, and she was benched in the second half for five minutes because of poor defense. If that wasn't enough, she missed two shots in the final 45 seconds. That gave ISU the ball with 38 seconds left to break a 64-64 tie, but the Cyclones didn't even take a shot as freshman guard Nikki Moody never gave up the basketball. Many thought Moody might have gotten the game clock confused with the 30-second shot clock.

"I don't know," said ISU head coach Bill Fennelly, who hadn't talked to Moody. "We do late-game situations every day, the shot clock is a different color, and I don't know. I don't know if she made a freshman mistake or what. We knew how much time was on the clock and we talked about the difference. They defended it very well. She just couldn't get a look."

Things got better for A&M when the officials' review of the shot-clock violation added 1.5 more seconds, bumping up the game clock to 7.3, which gave Carter more than enough time to grab the inbounds pass and dash down court.

Fennelly said he instructed his players to make Carter go to the left, but the screen by Bone allowed Carter to steam ahead on the right.

"If there's a church service, we need to go," said A&M trainer Mike "Radar" Ricke as the happy Aggies headed toward the locker room.

Carter said the Aggies didn't steal a victory, but for much of the afternoon the partisan Aggie crowd of 6,054 was antsy.

A&M jumped to a 17-10 lead, but ISU stormed back for a 39-35 halftime lead by hitting seven of its first eight 3-pointers. ISU stretched the lead to 47-39 early in the second half, but the Cyclones (11-8, 2-6) couldn't finish off the defending national champs, failing to build on a two-game winning streak.

"We just couldn't make a shot [or] couldn't get a break," Fennelly said.

ISU's bench was most upset that a foul wasn't called with 1:12 left in a tied game when post Hallie Christofferson missed a point-blank layup. Fennelly smiled when asked about that and Bone's screen that freed Carter.

"[On] my last trip to College Station, I'm not going to get in trouble," Fennelly said.

The Aggies are headed to the Southeastern Conference next season and the 22nd meeting between the two might be the last for some time. At least it was a good one, with 11 ties and six lead changes.

"You take the win any way you can get it," said Blair, who was coming off an ugly 57-53 loss at unranked Oklahoma State.

The Aggies avoided a devastating loss by being more physical down the stretch. The Aggies scored 12 second-chance points in the second half including a pair of buckets in an 8-0 run that tied the game at 47.

A&M senior wing Tyra White had four offensive rebounds in the second half that led to six points.

"I think she's better [when she goes inside]," Blair said. "And I'm going to look at possibly putting her in the post more."

White said it's when she's not rebounding that her offensive game suffers.

White got help from Adaora Elonu and Karla Gilbert, who combined for five more offensive rebounds in the second half. Gilbert (9 points, 7 rebounds) and fellow sophomore post Bone (10 points, 5 rebounds) complemented each other, while senior forward Elonu had a solid game with 19 points, five rebounds, four assists and two steals in a game-high 38 minutes with only one turnover.

"Don't forget about Elonu," Blair said.

Poppens would like to forget about having her afternoon marred by fouling Carter. Poppens had 22 points on 9-of-15 shooting with nine rebounds. The 6-2 junior was a perfect complement to ISU's 3-point shooters as the Cyclones put on an offensive clinic to match the number of points they scored in the first meeting in only 17 minutes.

"When we didn't turn them over, they were hitting 3s and killing us with dribble penetration," Blair said.

A&M freshman guard Alexia Standish hit a 3-pointer to make it 39-35 at the half. ISU's Anna Prins had a good look, but missed a 3-pointer with 5 seconds left. It was a sign of things to come as ISU hit only 2 of 11 beyond the arc in the second half.

A&M's defense allowed the Cyclones to hit only 11 of 29 shots in the first half after ISU hit 13 of 23 in the first half.

"We needed this game badly," Blair said. "Just think about going into Lubbock [to play Texas Tech on Wednesday]. "They had 10,000-plus in there the other day to beat Texas."

A&M probably will need a better game from Carter, who was 0 for 4 from the field to remain mired in a season-long shooting slump. Yet she came through with her second game-winning shot. She hit a 3-pointer with 10 seconds left for a 71-70 victory over Southern Cal on Dec. 18. And last season, Carter had 22 points in the 58-46 victory over Baylor in the championship of the Dallas Regional that snapped an eight-game losing streak to the Lady Bears and sent the Aggies to the Final Four.

NOTES -- ISU had 18 turnovers, but A&M had only a 15-14 edge in points off turnovers. ISU had an 11-0 edge in fastbreak points. ... Other than Gilbert, the Aggie bench had only four points, all by Skylar Collins. "My bench didnt play well today and that's what's been carrying us," Blair said. ... A&M senior reserve post Kelsey Assarian, who left the OSU game after getting hit in the head, played five minutes, but hadn't practiced because she wasn't cleared to play until before the game. ... Carter and Elonu were given basketballs by Blair before the game for topping 1,000 career points while the Aggies were on the road last week.