No. 16 Texas A&M falters at home, Alex Bentley leads No. 6 Penn State over Aggies
College Station, TX, Wed. Nov. 14 – No. 6 Penn State defeated No. 16 Texas A&M 63-58 Wednesday night in College station. Photos © Robert Franklin, all rights reserved.
No. 6 Penn State (2-0) overcame a five-point halftime deficit to fight back and defeat No. 16 Texas A&M (0-2) Wednesday night in College Station. The Aggies fell to 0-2 for the first time since the 1998-1999 season and the first time in the Gary Blair era. It was also their first non-conference home game loss since 2003. For Penn State, it was their first victory over a ranked non-conference opponent on the road since defeating No. 19 Texas on Dec. 21, 2001.
While the Aggies dominated the boards 49-42 they were not able to overcome a 12-2 run by Penn State in the last minutes of the game.
“This was a carbon copy of the Louisville game. If I’m correct, the last field goal we made was with 6:42 left and that was by [Kelsey] Bone” head coach Gary Blair said. “Their guards hurt us, but we made them earn just about everything.”
Penn State’s Alex Bentley led her team with 21 points, 14 of them in the second half. Maggie Lucas added 18 points.
“We were trying to pound the ball inside,” added Blair. “We felt like we could hurt them. We were doing it early and we were doing it in the second half. A lot of the time, our point guard couldn’t get in position to run the ball effectively. It was hard for us to make the guard to post entry pass. We can’t keep turning the ball over like that.”
Texas A&M’s Kelsey Bone had her second straight double-double with 16 points and 15 rebounds.
The Aggies host No. 2 Connecticut on Sunday. Penn State returns home for a game against Lafayette on the same day.
