WACO, Texas -- The Texas A&M-Corpus Christi women's basketball team lost their first game of the 2024-25 season on Sunday afternoon, falling on the road in Waco against No. 17 Baylor by a final score of 65-42.
The loss snapped a three-game winning streak to open the season for the Islanders (3-1), who had kicked off the year with victories over Texas A&M, Texas State and Sul Ross State. It also marked their fourth defeat in as many games against the Bears (3-1) in the all-time series, with the most recent matchup before this one before coming all the way back in 2007.
In the early goings of Sunday's contest, A&M-Corpus Christi managed to hang close with their Big 12 Conference opponents, going back-and-forth in what proved to be a defensive battle from the outset. The two teams combined for a nearly three-minute stretch with no points on either side during this quarter, and by the time the period came to a close, the score sat at just 16-11 in favor of Baylor. The offensive attack for the Islanders during this frame was led by senior
Jaeda Whitner, who picked up right where she left off in the win over Sul Ross State by knocking down a pair of jumpers to string together five early points.
This push and pull continued into the second and lasted until the Islanders finally managed to put together their first significant run of the afternoon midway through the quarter, a quick 8-3 burst brought about by two made buckets from graduate
Paige Allen, a pair of converted free throws by graduate
Mireia Aguado and finally a made layup from junior
Monae' Duffy. This brought A&M-Corpus Christi's deficit down to a game-low two, but from here, the Bears answered back swiftly, ripping off a 12-2 run of their own to build their advantage back up to 12 going into the half.
This proved to be a sign of things to come later in the game, as Baylor tightened the screws even further out of the break and made it harder for the Islanders to get much going on the offensive end. A&M-Corpus Christi shot 29.6 percent from the field in the second half, knocking down just eight of its 27 field goal attempts while failing to convert any of their four tries from downtown. All of this added up to just 19 points combined between the third and fourth quarters, which allowed the Bears to strengthen their lead and eventually walk away with a 23-point victory.
The undoing for A&M-Corpus Christi was primarily brought on by turnovers, with the team giving the ball up a season-high 22 times and surrendering 23 points in transition off them as a result. This put a damper on what was otherwise a nice day on defense from the Islanders, who managed to force 15 turnovers of their own and hold Baylor to just 22 makes on 66 attempts from the field in total.
Individually, the Islanders were led by Aguado, who poured in 11 points in what was her third double-digit scoring performance of the season. Allen also made her presence felt despite struggling from the field on offense, grabbing a season-high 12 rebounds while nabbing four steals for the second game in a row. The team also saw an important milestone reached on Sunday, with graduate
Nabaweeyah McGill recording the 100
th block of her career in the first quarter.
The Islanders will now try to get back in the win column in their next game on Wednesday, traveling north to take on UTSA at the Convocation Center with tipoff scheduled to take place at 6:30 p.m.
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