Carter’s clutch 3-pointer caps rally
COLLEGE STATION — As Texas A&M coach Gary Blair saw Chennedy Carter driving down the court with the Aggies behind by two points and mere seconds remaining against DePaul on Sunday, he wanted to tell her not to attempt a 3-pointer.
But something made the normally loquacious Blair stay quiet and just let his freshman play.
“For once in my life I zipped it,” Blair said.
And his out-of-character decision paid off.
Carter hit a 3 with 3.2 seconds left, capping a 37-point performance, to help the Aggies rally from a 17-point, second-half deficit for an 80-79 victory in the second round of the Women’s NCAA Tournament.
“I didn’t tell her one thing on that last shot … sometimes you’ve just got to let the kid go instead of over-coaching,” Blair said.
Carter, who set a school record for points in a Tournament game, scored 32 after halftime as fourthseeded A&M (26-9) pulled off another stunning second-half comeback for the second consecutive year. It was the largest comeback in the second round of the Tournament and the fourth-largest ever.
The Aggies trailed by two when Carter’s long 3-pointer from the top of the key gave A&M the lead. The fifth-seeded Blue Demons had a chance to win it after that, but Jasmine Lumpkin stole the inbounds pass from Kelly Campbell to secure the victory and send the Aggies to the Sweet 16 for the first time since 2014.
“Chennedy is a great player, knocked down shots, and we had no answer for her,” DePaul coach Doug Bruno said.
Carter, who scored A&M’s last nine points, struggled early, making just two of her first nine shots and scoring five points in the first half. She got hot after halftime, making seven 3-pointers, to enable the Aggies to mount the comeback.
Carter said she didn’t get down about her disappointing first half because she knew she had plenty of time to turn things around.
“It’s March Madness,” she said. “I knew that anything could happen, but the most important thing was us playing together.”
The Blue Demons were led by Tanita Allen, who had 19 points, and Mart’e Grays added 14.
Bruno was disappointed that his team was outrebounded 25-14 in the second half.
“You have a 17-point lead, you have to take care of that lead by executing, and I was just really irritated with our lack of execution rebounding-wise,” he said.
DePaul led by 15 after scoring the first five points of the fourth quarter. Carter then made two 3-pointers to ignite a 10-1 run that cut the lead to 69-63 with 6:21 left and spurred Bruno into calling a timeout.
Chante Stonewall made a layup soon after that timeout, but Carter hit a 3-pointer a few seconds later to make it 71-66.
A 3-point play by Anriel Howard was the start of a 5-1 spurt by the Aggies that cut the lead to 74-71 with 2½ minutes left. She finished with 18 points and 19 rebounds.
DePaul led by six after Ashton Millender’s 3-pointer with about two minutes left. But Carter scored the next five points to make it 7776.
Grays’ layup gave the Blue Demons a 79-76 advantage with 56 seconds left. Carter hit one of two free throws a few seconds later, and A&M forced a DePaul miss before Carter’s game-winning shot.