Aggies fall short vs. Olympic team
Carter scores record 34 points in exhibition loss
COLLEGE STATION – Seventeen years ago, Sue Bird and Diana Taurasi won a national title 170 miles from Texas A&M in San Antonio, creating a lifetime memory for the then-Connecticut stars.
The dynamic guard duo in years to come might not remember much about their visit to Reed Arena on Thursday night as members of the USA Women’s National Team, but they helped create lifetime memories for the collegians they faced in a glorified exhibition game.
The USA squad defeated No. 6 Texas A&M 93-63 before about 4,000 fans who appreciated both sides’ collective effort.
“It was an entertaining ballgame,” Aggies coach Gary Blair said. “We played as hard as we could. I love the experience, and I loved
the show Chennedy Carter put on for (fans). But I also loved the screens her teammates set for her.”
At least one Aggie the USA players certainly will remember is the sharpshooting junior guard Carter, the SEC preseason player of the year. Carter broke the scoring record by a collegian against the USA squad in an exhibition game, putting 34 points on the board against Bird and the bunch.
“We anticipated that Chennedy would be really geeked up and rise up in big moments,” USA coach Cheryl Reeve said. “That’s what she does. The mindset for us was one player was not going to beat us. She’s very crafty, and she has the ability to break you down.
“We’ll be seeing a lot of her at the pro level.”
The old collegiate record was 32 points by Texas Tech’s Michi Atkins in 1996. Carter broke the record with a little more than 9 minutes remaining when she pulled up from the left side of the key for a longrange 3-pointer and her 34th and final point of the night.
“My teammates were doing a (great) job to get me open,” Carter said. “I just tried to let the game come to me. It was a blessing (to score 34), but this was really a learning experience for me.”
Former Cy-Fair star Nneka Ogwumike, who played collegiately at Stanford, was thrilled to compete about an hour from home in representing the United States. She tied Skylar Diggins-Smith for the team lead with 19 points.
Ogwumike said her advice to Carter is to continue being a great teammate because that leads to a team’s success.
“The more of a great teammate you are, the greater your team will be,” said Ogwumike, who had about 10 family members and friends on hand.
Diggins-Smith played on the Notre Dame team that lost to A&M in the 2011 national title game, and she said having to look at the Aggies’ championship banner hanging in Reed over the last couple of days wore on her. Diggins-Smith made 5-of-8 3-pointers to help ease her angst.
“I’m playing with the best in the world,” DigginsSmith said of her solid game against the Aggies on Thursday. “It’s easy to play
with great players. Sometimes it’s about staying out of each other’s way.”
After the game, the funloving Taurasi “sawed varsity’s horns off” with Blair and the Aggies to the strains of the Aggie War Hymn, while most of her teammates got a kick out of it off to the side. Ogwumike said she politely declined to take part.
“I thought, ‘I don’t know what they would think of me at Stanford if I did this,’” Ogwumike explained with a chuckle.
The USA team already had defeated Stanford (9580) and Oregon State (8158) earlier this month on
its college tour in preparation for the Olympics this summer.
The Aggies get back to the regular season at 3 p.m. Sunday when they host Duke. A&M won its season opener 78-35 over Arkansas-Little Rock on Tuesday in Reed Arena.
Blair, who led the Aggies to their lone national title in 2011 against DigginsSmith and Notre Dame, was fired up following the Little Rock game because only about 1,500 fans showed up for the opener.