Commodores Look to Stay Perfect Against Aggies in SEC Road Battle
Vanderbilt Women’s Basketball Heads to Texas A&M
No. 7/6 Vanderbilt Commodores Women’s Basketball will take their 16-0 record on the road to College Station, Texas, tomorrow for a Sunday meeting with Texas A&M. The Aggies are 8-4 (1-2 SEC) and coming off a 74-66 win at Florida Thursday night.
Fatmata Janneh led the Aggies with a near double-double of 22 points and nine rebounds, followed by Ny’ceara Pryor, who can really play. Pryor posted 18 points, 12 assists, six steals, and five rebounds, hitting 10 of 13 from the free throw line. She leads the Aggies on the season with 16.5 points per game.
My first focus in this game will be the matchup with the bigs. Sacha Washington dominated the paint against Mizzou on Thursday night with 15 points and 16 rebounds. Texas A&M’s Janneh leads the SEC with 11.8 rebounds per game.
Paint presence will be a big key in this game, and I know that sounds fundamental, but A&M currently holds a slight advantage with 41.2 rebounds per game to Vanderbilt’s 39.3. If Vanderbilt can get Aiyana Mitchell and Ndjakalenga Mwenentanda going alongside Washington, this really gives the Commodores something that is hard to match there.
Vanderbilt can shoot the three well, averaging 36.2 percent from beyond the arc. That, along with a decent paint game, in my opinion, will be what places a major difference in this game. The Aggies only hit at 25.9 percent from three-point range, putting them 15th in the conference. They came out hot in the Florida game, shooting 4 of 5 from three in the first quarter, but it stopped there. Texas A&M finished the game 4 of 19 and 21.1 percent for the game.
Vanderbilt, on the other hand, is fifth in the SEC at 36.2 percent from three, and multiple players can hit. The Commodores are a well-balanced, versatile team that does a good job of moving the ball and drawing attention. The attention that Mikayla Blakes, who averages 24.9 points per game, receives and even Aubrey Galvan, allows the Commodores to set up nicely for some wide-open shots.
There is no perfect way to guard the Commodores in my opinion. Mizzou’s Coach Kellie Harper talked about the difficulty in doing that after Thursday’s game. Justine Pissott is second in the conference shooting 42.5 percent beyond the arc and really showed in the first quarter on Thursday just how dangerous she is on the floor. Give her a little room from three and that is all she needs.
Coming off a Missouri win of 99-68, the evidence is there to support Vanderbilt’s ability to get everyone involved, where five players scored 15 or more points, something that has only happened twice since the 1999-00 season for an SEC team.
I like Vanderbilt’s ability to move without the ball and the guards’ ability to drive and dish or drive the baseline. Just my observation, I believe the Commodores can make a living off pick-and-roll and simply drive to create in this game tomorrow against A&M.
A win tomorrow for Vanderbilt would match the school-record 17-game winning streak set by the 1992-93 Final Four team to open that season. Tune in on SEC Network+ at 3 PM ET/2 PM CT. Will Johnson and Tap Bentz will be on the call.
