Texas A&M Defeats Prairie View A&M 74-52 in Return to Reed Arena

COLLEGE STATION, Texas  --  Texas A&M used strong team offense to prevail over Prairie View A&M on Friday night at Reed Arena by a score of 74-52 in front of 4,915 fans. Texas A&M improves to 9-4 with the victory while Prairie View A&M fell to 3-7 with the loss.

Reigning SEC Player of the Week, espnw.com National Player of the Week and Ann Meyers Drysdale National Player of the Week Kelsey Bone continued her strong play with her sixth straight game of double figure scoring with 18 points, Bone has raised her season average in points in each game during the stretch. Over the last three weeks Bone is averaging 23.8 points and 9.5 rebounds, Bone was just shy of yet another double-double with nine rebounds on the night. In addition to scoring and rebounding the basketball Bone dished out six assists on the night.

"Kelsey enjoys the pass as much as the shot," Head Coach Gary Blair said after the game. "This is the first time we've ever had a national player of the week. I hope that will give our team and her some good national attention. She's playing like an All-American right now."

The Aggie offense jumped out to an early 10-6 lead at first media timeout, Kristi Bellock (6) and Bone (4) combined for all 10 of A&M's points. Beginning at the 17:05 mark in the first half the Aggies went on a 11-0 run over 2:16 of game play capped off by an old-fashioned three point play from Tori Scott to make the score 17-6.

The Maroon and White began the game on an impressive run of nine assists on the first nine made field goals in the game, en route to 24 Aggie points. The assist streak came to an end with a Karla Gilbert offensive rebound and put-back to make the score 26-10 with 7:46 remaining in the first half.

The Aggie offense continued to share the ball throughout the game as the Aggies ended with 23 assists on the night, just one off the season high of 24 set against Old Dominion eight days ago. Texas A&M has had at least 19 assists in each of the last four games and is averaging an impressive 22.3 assists per game in that stretch.

The home team used an early 6-2 run in the second half to stretch the Aggie lead out to a then game high 23 points with 17:25 remaining. Senior Adrienne Pratcher ignited the run with a nifty step-back jumper, Pratcher ended the game with four points and seven assists to lead the team.

Later in the second half the Aggies put the game out of reach with an impressive 16-4 run to give Texas A&M a game-high 32 point lead. In the run Texas A&M post players combined for 12 of the Aggie points, Freshman Courtney Walker made two jumpers for the remaining four points on the run.

Bellock had an efficient night scoring 14 points and pulling down eight rebounds in 25 minutes of play. Joining Bone and Bellock in double figures scoring were Walker and Gilbert with 11 points apiece. Texas A&M forced 13 Panther turnovers leading to 25 points and out-rebounded Prairie View 38-21, limiting the Panthers to only four offensive rebounds.

The Aggies will return to Reed Arena for a New Year's Day contest against Rice at 2:00 p.m. Tuesday's game will continue the half-price holiday hoops promotion.


 COURTESY TEXAS A&M UNIVERSITY SPORTS INFORMATION