Tag: Janiah Barker

Janiah Barker & Aicha Coulibaly speak to media before Texas A&M plays Nebraska in March Madness

“I think we’re all really excited to be here. Honestly, all respect to Nebraska but we’re ready to do what we need to do… which is win.”

Prior to the Texas A&M women’s basketball team playing Nebraska in the first round of the NCAA Tournament on Friday night, senior guard Aicha Coulibaly and sophomore forward Janiah Barker spoke to the media on Thursday.

“I was super excited because this is the first time that I’ve made it to the NCAA Tournament. I’m a senior and it was just a lot of excitement, I didn’t know what to say and it feels great,” Coulibaly explained. “They called our name really fast and I was just sitting in my chair, screaming and jumping all over the place and full of emotions. It’s exciting to see how far we came this season. We had some lows, ups and downs, but we kept fighting and this is where we’re at now, it feels great.”

Barker is grateful to be competing in March Madness as an underclassman.

“First, it’s a blessing to be here,” Barker said. “It was really cool and fun to be apart of the (selection process). It was all very genuine, we had an off day and then we came in ready to work. After the selection show, we saw the coaches and they left to go scout. They came to us and told us that we have a really good chance to do this and they believe in us. I think we’re all really excited to be here.

“Honestly, all respect to Nebraska and everyone here but we’re ready to do what we need to do… which is win.”

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Head coach Joni Taylor gets Texas A&M women’s basketball back to the NCAA Tournament in year two

The Texas A&M women’s team makes the NCAA Tournament for the first time in since 2021

The SEC is a challenging gauntlet in all of Women’s NCAA basketball, with eight teams making the NCAA Tournament and three making the WBIT Tournament, with a total of 11 teams making it to the postseason. For the first time since 2021, the Texas A&M Aggie women’s basketball team will be back in the NCAA tournament.

The Aggies ended the season at 19-12, doubling their win total from last season and earning a No. 22 seed where they will face No. 6 seed Nebraska in the Albany 1 region on March 22. This talented and determined A&M team in the big dance marks the first time since 2018 that the women’s and men’s teams will be in the postseason.

Unsurprisingly, with views being the primary objective for the NCAA, they match both teams against Nebraska just a few days after Texas A&M hires Trev Alberts away from Nebraska.

Texas A&M will face Nebraska on Friday, March 22 at 9;30 p.m. in Corvallis, Oregon. The game time and watch options will be announced later this week.

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Texas A&M’s women’s basketball team defeats Mississippi State in the SEC Tournament

The Aggie ladies have defeated Mississippi State in the second round of the SEC Tournament and will now face No. 1-seed South Carolina

The SEC Women’s Basketball Tournament is underway. Texas A&M, which ended the regular season on a disappointing three-game losing streak, entered the tournament as a 9-seed. On Thursday morning, the Aggies thoroughly defeated the 8-seed Mississippi State Bulldogs 72-56 to move on to the quarterfinal round.

According to multiple analysts, the Aggies were on the cusp of earning an NCAA Tournament bid, so winning at least one game in this week’s event was absolutely vital. Coming off her 15-point performance in Sunday’s loss to Alabama, senior guard Aicha Coulibaly was determined to will the Aggies toward a victory.

With an eye on exposing the Bulldogs in the paint, Texas A&M outscored Mississippi State 36-22 inside, led by Coulibaly’s 17 points. Sophomore forward Janiah Barker provided 15 points and nine rebounds as the Aggies out-rebounded the Bulldogs 40-32.

Off the bench, veteran guard Endyia Rogers netter 12 points, including a perfect 2-2 from beyond the arc, as Roger’s second three on the day added to A&M’s 20-point lead with 8 minutes remaining in the fourth quarter.

With the win, the Aggies are now gifted a meeting with the best team in the country, the South Carolina Gamecocks. With a win, expect this team to earn an at-large seed.

Texas A&M will face South Carolina at 12:00 EST on Friday, March 8. The game will air on the SEC Network.

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Watch: Highlights from the Texas A&M Womens lost to Vanderbilt

Watch the best plays from the Aggies’ game against Vanderbilt on Thursday night

Texas A&M battled back to take a lead late in the fourth quarter but ultimately fell 49-45 to Vanderbilt at home. In a game where points were hard to come by in the absence of the leading scorer Endyia Rogers was sorely missed.

Both teams are hovering around the .500 mark in SEC play, and both needed this win to improve their seeding in the NCAA tournament at the end of the season. The game turned out to be a defensive battle, but they once again fell victim to numerous turnovers late in the game.

“They were unforced, rushed. We’ve got to manage the game better at that point. We didn’t connect on some fast break opportunities. We also have to know when to pull it out and make them guard us. We had done a good job of taking the lead and we were running some stuff that they had struggled in the fourth quarter to defend and then we just turned it over. Then they went on a 10-0 run to finish the game.”

Going forward they will need to find some offense with Rogers out and the turnovers will need to drop drastically in key situations. Below you can see some of the best plays from the game.

Watch: Highlights from the Texas A&M win over Kentucky

Watch the best plays from the Aggies’ game against Kentucky on Sunday afternoon

Texas A&M is looking to make a push to make a run in the SEC tournament en route to a NCAA tournament bid. Sunday was another step toward that goal as the Aggies passed another test given to them. Coach Joni Taylor always preaches that they will keep getting the same test until they pass it.

This is the first time this season that A&M won back-to-back road games in SEC play. After beating Ole Miss in Oxford, the Aggies had a chance to double up on the road and they proved to be the better team when they stepped off the court in Lexington. They went to Kentucky and beat up the Wildcats for a 61-44 win.

The Aggies are now 17-6 overall and one game away from doubling up on their win total from last season and 5-5 in SEC play with six games left before the SEC tournament starts. They will get a chance to go north of .500 for the first time in conference play.

Below are some of the best plays from the game on Sunday.

Everything Rogers and Ware had to say after the loss to Mississippi State

Here’s what Texas A&M players Endyia Rogers & Lauren Ware had to say after the Aggies’ frustrating lost to Mississippi State on Sunday afternoon.

The Texas A&M Aggies (15-6, 3-5 SEC) fell to the Mississippi State Lady Bulldogs (19-5, 6-3 SEC) at Reed Arena on Sunday afternoon.

Turnovers and fouls were the downfall of the Aggies in their 74-63 loss to the visitors. After a blazing fast start jumping out to an 11-2 lead A&M cooled off drastically and started getting extremely sloppy with the ball. They literally threw away the game to the tune of 22 turnovers and a majority of those were unforced.

The message at halftime was to slow down to eliminate the turnovers and get the ball into the paint.

“She just said we’re fine and we need to stop turning the ball over. We saw what we got when we stopped turning the ball over.”

– Rogers

“They switched up zone and man throughout the game. When we went into zone, Joni said we took a lot of threes in the second quarter. I think we took eight which is a lot for us. The guards did a good job of slowing the game down, penetrating, and finding the inside.”

– Ware

Below, you can watch the full post-game presser Q&A with Endyia Rogers & Lauren Ware.

Texas A&M will be back on the road to face Ole Miss in Oxford on February 8 at 6:30 PM CT.

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Everything Joni Taylor had to say after loss to Mississippi State

Here’s what Texas A&M coach Joni Taylor had to say after the Aggies’ frustrating lost to Mississippi State on Sunday afternoon.

The Texas A&M Aggies (15-6, 3-5 SEC) fell to the Mississippi State Lady Bulldogs (19-5, 6-3 SEC) at Reed Arena on Sunday afternoon.

Turnovers and fouls were the downfall of the Aggies in their 74-63 loss to the visitors. After a blazing fast start jumping out to an 11-2 lead A&M cooled off drastically and started getting extremely sloppy with the ball. They literally threw away the game to the tune of 22 turnovers and a majority of those were unforced.

The second issue was the fouls. It seemed, especially late, that the Aggies didn’t see a foul they didn’t like. If was frustrating for the fans to watch, then I can only imagine how Coach Joni Taylor felt watching it in real time. She pointed out in the post-game that those two issues are just things that can’t happen against good teams and expect to win.

“When you’re playing a team that’s that good, you can’t give them the basketball, and I just think because of our turnovers in that stretch where we needed to be settled, and we needed to be in time and score, it never felt that way, and so we’ve got to take better care of the basketball now some of the fouls obviously were us at the end fouling but we sent them to the line way too many times.”

Below, you can watch the full post-game presser Q&A with Coach Taylor

Texas A&M will be back on the road to face Ole Miss in Oxford on February 8 at 6:30 PM CT.

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Watch: Highlights from the Texas A&M lost to the Mississippi State Bulldogs

Watch the best plays from the Aggies’ game against Mississippi State on Sunday afternoon

Texas A&M started off hot jumping out to an 11-2 lead before the first time out was called. The Aggies continued to maintain that through the first quarter, but as the game went on, Mississippi State clawed their way back in to gain momentum. A&M suffered from so many unforced errors and had a staggering 22 turnovers combined with 21 fouls.

The disparity between the two teams at the foul line was a very telling story. The Aggies only attempted nine free throws while the Bulldogs made 22-29 on the night, leading to their eventual 74-63 win over A&M. Even though they made more shots and out-rebounded Mississippi State, the fouls were just too much to overcome.

“When you’re playing a team that’s that good, you can’t give them the basketball, and I just think because of our turnovers in that stretch where we needed to be settled, and we needed to be in time and score, it never felt that way, and so we’ve got to take better care of the basketball now some of the fouls obviously were us at the end fouling but we sent them to the line way too many times.”

In the end, there were too many self-inflicted wounds and Coach Joni Taylor will need to find a way to get her team to be more consistent if they want to hit their goals at the end of the season.

Watch: Highlights from Texas A&M’s 69-67 victory over Missouri

Watch the best plays from the Aggies’ 69-67 victory for their first SEC road win of the season.

The moves coach Joni Taylor made in the offseason are paying major dividends. Her team is tough and all surpassed last year’s win total overall in SEC play. They crossed another test this past game by winning their first road game in league play this year after defeating Missouri 69-67 on Thursday night.

They were led by transfers Aicha Coulibaly and Lauren Ware. Together, they made several timely buckets down the stretch as the Missouri Tigers mounted a strong comeback. Coulibaly struggled from the field but her major contribution came on the offensive boards with five rebounds leading both teams in that category. Ware had an extremely efficient night, going 10-13 for a career-high 22 points and nine rebounds, just missing out on a double-double.

Texas A&M currently sits in the middle of the pack at 3-3 in SEC play with 10 games left on the schedule. No one can predict the future, but the Aggies are in a good position to make a move into the top three teams in the league and enter the Top 25. Below, you can see some of the top plays from the Aggie’s rousing road triumph over the Missouri Tigers.

‘We’ve got to make sure that everything is tough for them’ Williams & Jones answers questions in preview of the Missouri game

Here’s what Texas A&M players Sole Williams and Sahara Jones had to say during the Missouri matchup preview.

Texas A&M (14-4, 2-3) will be on the road to face the Missouri Tigers (11-8, 2-4) on Thursday night.

The Aggies have needed others to step up as they get deeper into SEC play and are dealing with a few injuries. Senior Sahara Jones has stepped up and has a very smooth game that translates well to what Coach Joni Taylor asks her team to do. She touched upon how she has been able to hit a groove in the recent games after starting a little slow.

“…been in the gym getting up shots and now they’re just finally falling which is good for me and it’s also good for my team so we can get points on the board of course and so like my teammates won’t always feel that the pressure is on them to score now they like have some relief so I’m really happy about that”

Below, you can watch the full presser Q&A with Sole Williams and Sahara Jones.

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