By Ronnie Woodard

The 10th-ranked Texas A&M women’s basketball team took the court on Big Monday looking for revenge against the only team that had thus far blemished their otherwise perfect inaugural run through the Southeastern Conference.

However, the No. 8 Kentucky Wildcats had different plans, recording a 70-66 victory over the Aggies in front of 6,814 fans at Reed Arena. With the loss, A&M falls to 20-6 on the year and 10-2 in SEC play.

DeNesha Stallworth scored 12 points and pulled down 12 boards for Kentucky, and A’dia Mathies poured in 13 — all in the second half — to lead the Wildcats (23-3, 11-2).

“I thought it was a great basketball game,” said Kentucky head coach Matthew Mitchell. “It was two great teams going at it. We have a lot of respect for Texas A&M and their program. They are a very tough team and there was a great crowd out here tonight. We had to really play well to win this game.”

Senior forward Kristi Bellock registered a career-high 15 rebounds and also had 12 points for the Aggies; freshman guard Courtney Walker, who played the majority of the second half with four fouls, tied her career-high with 20 points.

“None of our offense was working,” said A&M head coach Gary Blair. “We ran a couple of sets for [Walker] and I told her to do her best Michael Jordan act, and she was doing it. Walker is a great kid who works hard, and she gave us a chance at the end.

“Bellock was a warrior. She got beat a couple of times, but look at what she did for the whole ball game.”

Kentucky opened up a 14-point lead — its largest of the night — with 8:31 remaining in the game on a jumper by Mathies, but A&M answered the call and rattled off 10 straight points over the next 2:10 to cut the deficit to four.

The Wildcats were able to hold the lead between six and four points for the next five minutes of play until Walker drove the lane and laid the ball off the glass for two with 1:04 left, cutting the once wide Kentucky lead to just two.

On the next possession, A&M’s defense looked to make a big stop when freshman guard Jordan Jones deflected the ball out of bounds with one second remaining on the shot clock.

After a timeout, the Wildcats inbounded the ball to point guard Jennifer O’Neill, who threw up a prayer that glanced off the rim.

In the fight for the rebound, 5-8 Walker attempted to box-out 6-3 Stallworth, but Stallworth was able to tip the ball to Bria Goss — who was wide open under the basket — for the easy put back, stretching the Kentucky lead back to four with 29 seconds remaining.

“That was just a hustle play,” said Mitchell. “That did not look like a good situation, but we hung in there and Jennifer got the shot off. It was great rebounding and great presence of mind to tap it to Bria for the layup. That was obviously a very big play in the game.”

Walker would pick up an and-one opportunity with four seconds left on the next trip down the floor.

But the Edmond, Ok. native was forced to intentionally miss her free throw to give the Aggies a chance at sending the game to overtime. Walker’s attempted glanced off the rim and into the waiting arms of Goss, who was fouled and eventually converted on two free throws to ice the game for Kentucky.

“It was just a chess match at the end,” said Blair. “When Walker went down to shoot to cut it to one, I said there was no way I was going to take a chance at trying to steal the ball [on the inbounds] when we hadn’t pressed the whole game. We missed the free throw on purpose and almost got it.”

The loss hurts the A&M’s chances of winning the Southeastern Conference title outright, but if the Aggies can win their remaining games — including a tussle with Tennessee on February 28th — they will clinch at least a share of the title and the right to either the number one or number two seed in next month’s SEC Tournament.