Carter’s ‘PinkieGate’ amounts to nothing
COLLEGE STATION — Texas A&M coach Gary Blair attached a “gate” to the biggest sports topic at Texas A&M this weekend.
“I guess the saga of ‘PinkieGate’ is over with,” he said with a grin. “I guess now we have to have something else.”
Meantime, the fourthseeded Aggies and guard Chennedy Carter swung the gates wide open from the start in an 81-64 defeat of 13th-seeded Wright State on Friday in the first round of the NCAA Tournament in Reed Arena. A&M (25-7) will face fifth seed Marquette (27-7) on Sunday for the right to advance to the Sweet 16 next week in Chicago.
Carter returned to action after missing the SEC tournament with a broken pinkie finger on her right (shooting) hand. The SEC’s leading scorer, who entered the NCAA Tournament averaging 22.5 points per game, didn’t miss a beat in playing with a small wrap and padding on the small finger against the Raiders.
“I put in a lot of work, and even though I wasn’t able to play for (two weeks), I was doing a lot of things off the court that really helped my ability,” Carter said. “Once the doctors released me, I was in the gym putting up shots and just working on my game. That was the biggest thing — staying in the gym. And it paid off.”
She led all scorers Friday with 27 points (8-of-19 from the field), and A&M guard Kayla Wells followed with 17. The Aggies will try to advance to their second consecutive Sweet 16 after bowing out in the second round the previous two seasons (2016 and ’17).
If their opener is an indicator, the Aggies might be in it for the long haul.
“I don’t think we could have started the game any better, and we’ve been a fast-starting team all year,” Blair said.
A&M led 31-13 after a quarter and with the contest well in hand, eased off the gas.
“It’s really tough to see that many points go up on the board that quickly,” Wright State coach Katrina Merriweather said. “In the huddles I would just say, we’ve got to weather the storm — it will slow down. Unfortunately when it did slow down, we didn’t make enough shots to (cut) into the lead. We just kept fighting, but it was very tough.”
Carter said it wasn’t tough to play with a small wrap on her pinkie.
“I think I’ll just keep it,” Carter said of her plans for Marquette. “It feels fine. It’s just one layer plus a little padding, so it really doesn’t bother me or affect my shot. It protects me pretty well, and I think I’m going to keep it on just to stay safe.”
Merriweather had no doubt Carter would excel.
“She’s a very high-level player, so (any) hope that her timing was going to be off or her shot was going to be off — that probably wasn’t very likely,” Merriweather said. “And I’m sure she was shooting when she was out, she wasn’t just in the bed hanging out.”