Arkansas women’s basketball let a 14-point second-half lead slip away and dropped a critical NCAA Tournament bubble matchup with a 73-67 loss to Texas A&M on Thursday night at Reed Arena in College Station, Texas.
Arkansas (18-10, 6-7 SEC) led at halftime 30-20 but was outscored by 16 points over the final 20 minutes. It was the second time in conference play, along with an 85-81 loss Feb. 8 at Florida, the Razorbacks have been defeated after holding a double-digit lead in the second half.
The Razorbacks had a 36-22 lead with 9:01 left in the third quarter, their largest of the game, but the Aggies caught fire over the game’s remainder to make a comeback.
Texas A&M (18-8, 6-7) extended its home winning streak against the Razorbacks to eight consecutive games. Arkansas has not won in College Station since February 1991.
The Aggies sizzled at a 19-of-28 (68%) clip from the floor in the second half after shooting 7 of 34 (21%) in the first half.
“I'm telling you, watch the two halves,” Arkansas coach Mike Neighbors said. “Pretty much everything went like we hoped it would in the first half and not much in the second half.”
It was an important game for both teams regarding postseason implications. Texas A&M entered the game among the last four teams included in ESPN’s most recent “Bracketology,” and Arkansas was listed as one of the first four teams out.
“In the second half, all credit to [Texas A&M coach Joni Taylor] and her staff and their players,” Neighbors said. “We all know it was a big game. At halftime I was really nervous with the lead. We haven't been that team. We've been a slow-starting team…Tonight we maybe tricked ourselves and switched our pregame speech to halftime, and it didn't work out so good.”
After trailing by as many as 9 points midway through the fourth quarter, Arkansas stormed back and took a late 65-64 lead with a Samara Spencer three-pointer. But the Aggies closed the game outscoring the Razorbacks 9-2 over the final 2:21.
“There are times when maybe we [have gotten] our heads down and we don't finish it,” Neighbors said. “I didn't think there was any quit tonight. They were playing through the buzzer, and I think that's an area that we've grown a great deal in this year. I think it's going to carry us into the postseason.”
Historically, an 8-8 mark in SEC play has been enough for teams from the conference to earn an at-large bid to the Big Dance. It appears the Razorbacks will likely need to win two of their final three regular-season games, which consists of home matchups with Vanderbilt and South Carolina, and a road tilt at Ole Miss.
“I just told [the team], ‘This is a good team, and we lost to them at home,’” Neighbors said. “'We cannot let this one hurt us on Sunday. If we will play that hard, if we'll stay that focused as we were going into this game [we have to] just play a little bit better.’
“We'll be fine with our last however many games we have.”
Texas A&M forward Janiah Barker, who was ranked the nation’s No. 3 recruit in the class of 2022, had a 16-point and career-high 15-rebound performance.
“I still think she's just really [at the] tip of the iceberg,” Neighbors said. “When she gets in that mode right there, that dominating mode, she has the ability to be one of the best players in the country.”
Both teams shot under 30% in a tight first quarter that saw seven lead changes. Texas A&M led 15-13 at the end of the period helped in large part by holding Arkansas to 5-of-17 (29%) shooting, including 0 of 7 from three-point range.
The Aggies grew their lead to 18-13 early in the second quarter with a three-pointer by Solè Williams. But from there, Arkansas picked up its defensive intensity and controlled the period’s remainder.
The Razorbacks went on a 17-2 run to close the first half and took a 30-20 lead. Texas A&M was held without a basket over the first half’s final 7:39 and missed its last 10 shots.
Arkansas took a 36-22 lead early after halftime when Maryam Dauda and Makayla Daniels knocked down three-pointers, but Texas A&M stormed back with a 10-0 run to force a timeout by Neighbors.
Texas A&M tied the game 41-41 with a Sahara Jones layup with 3 minutes left in the third quarter, and from there the teams went back and forth. The Aggies took their first lead since early in the second quarter when Williams made a jumper in the lane, but Spencer responded with a three-pointer to put Arkansas ahead 44-43.
The final 30 seconds of the third quarter saw three lead changes. Sydney Bowles knocked down a three-pointer to make it a 46-45 lead for the Aggies, but Spencer responded with a three-point play with five seconds left.
All momentum swung Texas A&M’s way when the Aggies drove the length of the floor and a deep make from Williams gave the Aggies a 49-48 edge entering the fourth quarter.
For as poor as the Aggies shot in the first half, they flipped things around during the 29-point third quarter. Texas A&M was 12 of 15 (80%) from the floor, including 4 of 5 (80%) from three-point range in the quarter.
“That 29, that’s a smack in the face,” Neighbors said.
The Aggies carried their energy into the fourth quarter. A Williams three-pointer and Aicha Coulibaly steal and layup gave them their largest lead, 61-52, with 5:51 remaining.
Spencer did everything she could to keep the Razorbacks in the game, as she scored 9 of her team-high 24 points in the fourth quarter, including the three-pointer to give Arkansas the lead back with 2:44 left to play.
Three consecutive layups by Texas A&M gave the Aggies a late cushion, and the closest the Razorbacks got again was 70-67 with 18 seconds left when Carly Keats made a layup. The Aggies made three free throws down the stretch to ice the win.
“When you see 20 points in the first half and 53 in the second, that makes you scratch your head,” Neighbors said. “But that was all of them. I'm not going to blame us. I'm not going to take [from them], they made those points happen.”
Texas A&M went 8 of 16 (50%) from the three-point line.
“If you'd have told me they were going to take 16 threes, I probably would have said we probably did a good job,” Neighbors said. “But the fact that they made half of them, that hurts. They did beat us at our own game.”
Spencer (24 points), Dauda (17) and Daniels (15) led the Razorbacks in scoring, and Saylor Poffenbarger had a team-high 9 rebounds but fouled out with 3:31 remaining. Arkansas was 23 of 60 (38%) from the floor, 7 of 22 (32%) from three-point range and 14 of 20 (70%) from the foul line.
Arkansas was without freshman guard Taliah Scott, who leads the team with 22.1 points scored per game. Scott returned home to Orange Park, Fla., last week due to a “serious family emergency.”
Texas A&M was also without its leading scorer, point guard Endyia Rogers. She missed her third consecutive game with a knee injury.
Arkansas is scheduled to host Vanderbilt on Sunday at 2 p.m. on SEC Network+.