COLUMBIA - Just one opponent stands in the way of the Missouri women's basketball team securing a double-bye in the Southeastern Conference Tournament in Nashville.
The No. 11 Tigers (11-4, 23-5 SEC) have never won a game in the SEC Tournament but would be guaranteed a game on Friday with a win today against No. 17 Texas A&M in College Station. The Aggies are 21-8, 10-5 SEC, and with the addition of freshman guard Chennedy Carter, have the ability to run with almost anyone.
The game tips at 3 p.m. on SEC Network.
Carter, at 5-toot-7, can score from anywhere on the floor and is second in the SEC with 21.5 points per game. She is a lock for the Freshman All-SEC team and has a case for SEC Freshman of the Year, and eclipsed 40 points this season the same number of times she's been held under 10 points, once. Carter averages 23 points per conference game and dropped 36 on South Carolina and 31 on both Georgia and Mississippi State.
She takes 18 shots per game, shoots 44 percent from the floor, 34 percent from 3 and 78 percent from the foul line. And while Carter will pull it or drive to the rim when she gets any separation, she's is not a one-dimensional player.
Carter averages nearly five assists per game, and has another outside threat in Danni Williams and a 6-5 center in Khaalia Hillsman, who each average 14.5 points per game.
Anriel Howard, a 5-11 forward, is averaging a double-double this season, scoring 11.9 points per game with 11.9 rebounds (second in the SEC). It's no wonder the two go together: she's also the conference's second-leading offensive rebounder, behind Mississippi State's Teaira McCowan, and 4.5 offensive rebounds per game provides plenty of additional scoring chances.
The Aggies are a team that prefer to work from the inside out. They've taken 200 fewer 3s this season than opponents, 120 fewer than conference opponents in 15 games, or eight fewer attempts per game. Williams is shooting 41 percent from beyond the arc in conference play, Carter just under 30 percent, and Howard is 5-for-15 from three in SEC games. Hillsman and forward/guard Jasmine Lumpkin have yet to attempt a 3 this season.
Where Texas A&M does have an advantage is at the foul line. The Aggies put up 22 free-throw attempts per game, average 17 makes per game and have shot 112 more foul shots than conference opponents so far this season. The Aggies are second in the conference behind Tennessee in total foul shots this season, and Carter, Hillsman and Howard each go to the foul line five times per game.
Missouri has shown it can shut down a team's interior attack if an opponent's outside shot is not falling and did a good job of avoiding fouls against the Volunteers at home, but a free throw battle is not advisable: Texas A&M is the only team in the conference better than the Tigers percentage-wise from the line, shooting 77 percent to Missouri's 75.8 percent.
Both teams are neck-and-neck in turnovers and rank in the middle of the conference pack in ball control. Missouri broke out the press against Vanderbilt to great effect, but neither the Tigers or the Aggies have built an identity around pressure this season.
Missouri's defense has the edge in this game, holding conference opponents to 63 points per game while the Aggies allow 69.5 per game. And the goal for the Tigers should be to hold A&M below 35 percent shooting for the game: the Aggies are 0-4 in games in which they fall short of that mark.