Junior forward Shaunté Smith had eight points and one assist in the Cowgirls loss to Oklahoma on Saturday. OSU hosts Texas A&M tonight at 7.
The Cowgirls and Aggies know the meaning of “every possession counts.”
Six points and less than 10 seconds have decided the past three games between the two teams.
The Aggies won both games last season with 0.3 seconds remaining while Andrea Riley hit a game-winning three-pointer in the first meeting this year with 6.6 seconds on the clock.
“I don’t know if there’s another two teams in the country that have played three games like that,” Cowgirl coach Kurt Budke said.
Budke’s No. 17 Cowgirls (21-5, 9-4 Big 12) will try to get their 10th conference victory against No. 20 Texas A&M at 7 p.m. Wednesday in Gallagher-Iba Arena. Should the Cowgirls win, it would match their highest Big 12 victory total set in 1997-98.
More important than setting records against the Aggies (20-7, 8-5) is the chance to secure at worst a fourth-place finish in the Big 12.
The format for the Big 12 tournament is the top four teams get a first-round bye.
Only one team has won the Big 12 tournament without the first-round bye.
The Cowgirls sit in fourth place in the Big 12 behind Baylor (11-2), Oklahoma (10-3), and Kansas State (10-3). Texas A&M is fifth and trails Oklahoma State by one game.
“I think it’s the most important game (of the rest of the regular season) because we’re both fighting for and trying to get that bye,” sophomore Andrea Riley said.
“It’s going to be a tough game because we’re both going to come out fighting with each other, fighting hard for forty minutes.”
The Cowgirls will try to rebound, literally, against the Aggies after losing to Oklahoma 81-71 on Saturday in large part to the Sooners owning a 54-29 rebounding edge.
“(A&M) rebounds very well,” senior Maria Cordero said.
“They’re guards and everybody rebounds very well, so that’s going to be a big key to this game. In the end, it comes down to who’s more physical and who gets more rebounds.”
Texas A&M enters the game as one of the hottest teams in the conference. The Aggies are on a three-game winning streak and have won seven of their last eight games.
“We’ve got our work cut out for us,” Budke said. “They were picked (in the preseason) to win the conference for a reason. They got everybody back.
“I think win or lose this game, these two teams will probably meet again right there in the Big 12 (tournament).”
Texas A&M has won the last three games in Gallagher-Iba, but the Cowgirls own a 20-13 advantage in the overall series.
Oklahoma State is 3-2 on the season against top 25 opponents.
Riley, who averages 22.7 points per game, has 973 points for her career. If Riley surpasses the 1,000-point mark, she would become the 17th player in school history to reach that total.
OSU enters the game with 13 home victories this season, which is one away from setting the single-season school record.
