Aggies guard Carter shooting to return
COLLEGE STATION – Sophomore guard Chennedy Carter on Thursday glanced down at the most talked-about pinkie finger at Texas A&M.
“Right now, I’m just going to go with a little wrap with a little padding underneath,” Carter said of the broken little finger on her shooting hand, and how she intends to deal it in the NCAA Women’s Tournament. “But as we get further into the tournament, I’m probably going to go without anything.”
The fourth-seeded Aggies (24-7) host 13th-seeded Wright State (27-6) at 3 p.m. Friday in the opening round of the tournament. Carter lead the Southeastern Conference with 22.5 points per game, but she broke the finger in the Aggies’ regular-season finale against Arkansas and missed the SEC tournament.
“Chennedy is a big piece of this team, so when she was missing, we were struggling a little bit,” A&M guard Kayla Wells said of the Aggies’ 1-1 SEC tournament record. “We learned to play without her, and that helped a lot of people who didn’t get a lot of chances (before) to get some chances in the SEC tournament, to get us ready for this.”
“This” is A&M’s 14th consecutive appearance in the NCAA Tournament under coach Gary Blair, including the school’s lone national title in 2011 in one of its four top sports (football, men’s and women’s basketball and baseball) since 1939.
The Aggies are hosting the first two rounds for a second consecutive season. Last year, they advanced to the Sweet 16 behind the shooting touch of Carter, the 2018 national freshman of the year. She averaged 31.3 points per game in three NCAA Tournament games last season, fourth-best tally in women’s tournament history.
A broken finger has played the best defense to date on Carter, and all eyes will be on her right hand Friday afternoon at Reed Arena as she returns to action.
“She can do things not many other players can do,” Wright State guard Michal Miller said.
Carter had stitches from surgery removed Monday and has practiced since with padding and tape protecting the incisions.
“There are no restrictions,” Blair said. “Last week, she was still shooting the ball with stitches in, just shooting basically with four fingers and using the last one as a crutch. The first day of practice this week she probably went for 20 points.
“She’s ready to go, and there are no excuses on our part. Her job is to deliver for her team, not just in scoring but in playmaking and defense and leadership.”
The Aggies in the offseason were hit by the transfers of starters Anriel Howard to Mississippi State and Danni Williams to Texas. But under Blair, who took over one of the nation’s worst programs 16 years ago and has 15 consecutive winning seasons since, A&M hardly missed a beat.
“I wasn’t brought in here just to win games. I was brought in here to compete for championships,” Blair said on Thursday. “I’ve done that, particularly in the last 14 years, or else I would be out hitting a golf ball on a beautiful day like this. …I love March Madness.”
The winner faces the winner of Rice-Marquette, which tips off 1 p.m. Friday. The final game of the opening two rounds will be Sunday in Reed Arena, with the victor advancing to the Chicago regional.