Women's basketball - Purdue beats undefeated Texas A&M 72-58
Purdue women's basketball picked up a big non-conference win on Thursday over the previously undefeated Aggies of Texas A&M, using another second half surge to coast out of Mackey Arena with a 72-58 victory. The Boilermakers beat Texas A&M last season in College Station and came out on tip if the rematch less than a year later in West Lafayette.
The Aggies had their foot on the pedal coming out of the gates, after an easy layup on the games first possession, forward Janiah Barker had five points in less than two minutes as Texas A&M got out to an early 8-0 lead.
Abbey Ellis helped get the lid off the basket for the Boilermakers hitting a tough jumper to stop the Aggies' run, followed by a tough bucket from Mary Ashley Stevenson. Texas A&M made it a 12-4 game at the 4:46 mark of the first quarter.
The Boilermakers couldn't handle the physicality or length from Texas A&M in the early going, giving up seven offensive rebounds in the first ten minutes and having several passes that bounced their way when they should have been turnovers. Purdue was also out rebounded by 10 during the first five minutes of the game.
After Texas A&M made it a 12-4 game, Purdue shifted gears and turned into the aggressors, however. That response was headlined by Rashunda Jones, who provided instant offense upon checking into the game. The speedy freshman had back-to-back transition buckets to get the offense flowing for Katie Gearlds.
Jones kickstarted a 10-0 run across the final 2:41 of the first quarter, being joined by Madison Layden with a three and Jeanae Terry with two free throws during the stretch. Jones reached a new career-high of eight points in the first half.
During that time, the Boilermakers locked in defensively as well. Purdue was able to hold the hot shooting Aggies to 1-13 shooting to close out the final frame and took a five point lead in the second quarter.
The 10-0 extended into the second quarter as Madison Layden hit her second three of the half and Jeanae Terry knocked down a jumper to give the Boilermakers a ten point lead early in the quarter.
Similarly to the Boilermakers in the first half, Texas A&M had a response of their own to the Purdue run. The Aggies outscored Purdue 9-4 over the next three minutes to get back into the game. After trading baskets back and forth, cutting the Purdue lead to just four, the Boilermakers got things going offensively once again.
The Boiler Upload game wrap is brought to you by Reindeer Shuttle:
Jeanae Terry had a pair of free throws, followed by a Rashunda Jones jumper and a Caitlyn Harper three to extend the advantage back up to 11 heading into halftime.
After struggling, along with the rest of the Boilermakers in the first few minutes, Harper had her best performance of the season in the opening 20 minutes.
The sixth-year senior tied a season-high with 10 points on 4-6 shooting and 2-3 from beyond the arc and grabbed six rebounds to pace the Boilermakers in the first half. She also notched the first double-double of her Purdue career, finished with 14 points and 11 rebounds.
The Boilermakers allowed Texas A&M to insert themselves back into the game to start the second half, after an Abbey Ellis layup, the Aggies went on a 6-0 run behind a pair of baskets by Janiah Barker. Jeanae Terry snapped the scoreless stretch on a drive to the basket at the 7:02 mark of the quarter.
Like they did time and time again on Thursday night the Boilermakers responded, led by their energizer bunny, Abbey Ellis. Ellis was scorching hot on the offensive end coming out of the break and caught fire halfway through the quarter. The senior guard scored 10 straight points on her own during a two and a half minute stretch to give the Boilermakers a 52-36 lead.
Ellis reached a season-high 18 points during the outburst, which was then expanded to 20 by the end of the night.
After Ellis cooled down a bit towards the end of the quarter, Rashunda Jones began to take charge of the Boilermakers' offense, scoring six points on 3-3 shooting in the final three minutes of the quarter. Jones added onto her career-high, which she set in the first half, dropping 20 points in the win after having just eight points combined over her first two games.
Her final bucket, an acrobatic layup, extended Purdue's lead back to 17 heading into the fourth quarter.
The speedy backcourt duo of Ellis and Jones accounted for 18 of the Boilermakers' 22 third quarter points as Purdue connected on five of its last seven field goal attempts in the quarter.
Purdue was able to coast to a convincing win in the fourth quarter despite shooting less than 30% from the field over the final ten minutes.
After struggling with turnovers over the previous two games this season, the Boilermakers made major strides in ball security against the Aggies, coughing it up 9 times compared to Texas A&M's 19, which was a new season-best mark.
Purdue now improves to 2-1 and takes some momentum into next week, which will include a trip to the Bahamas where the Boilermakers will battle with Florida and Georgia prior to Thanksgiving.