Chennedy Carter scored 27 points, Kayla Wells added 20 points and N'dea Jones had 20 rebounds, leading Texas A&M to a 76-70 victory over No. 8 Oregon State to win the Maui Jim Maui Classic at the Lahaina Civic Center. This marks the second consecutive season Texas A&M defeated an AP Top 10 team.
"In my 16 years at Texas A&M, this is going down as one of my top five wins, because of how we played and how we earned it against a top 10 team," said Texas A&M head coach Gary Blair. "I am proud of how our entire team stepped up, especially Shambria Washington."
Jones' 20 rebounds were the third-most for a Texas A&M player in a single game, and she had two key rebounds down the stretch to seal victory. Jones' rebound of an Oregon State miss with 22 seconds left forced the Beavers to start fouling to extend the game, then grabbed an offensive rebound with nine seconds remaining that prevented the Beavers from having a possession down two. Jones scored eight points in the game, and was named to the All-Tournament team.
The Aggies (8-2) stormed out the gates with a 13-3 run, and had their lead swell to as many as 16 points in the first half. Carter, who was named Tournament MVP, scored 24 first-half points, but battled a nagging foot injury and foul trouble in the second half.
Oregon State (8-2) would battle back, tying the game twice, but never regained the lead. Kayla Wells scored 13 of her career-high 20 in the second half, sinking all four of her free throws in the closing moments to ice the game.
This marks Texas A&M's first win over an AP Top 10 team since beating No. 6 Tennessee on January 11, 2018, and the Aggies' first win over an AP Top 10 away-from-home since defeating No. 8 Kentucky on March 10, 2013. It is the Aggies' first in-season tournament title since the 2014 Maggie Dixon Classic, hosted by DePaul.
Ciera Johnson scored 11 points in the game, extending her streak to seven games with at least 10 points. Katie McWilliams led Oregon State with 19 points.
Carter scored her 1,000th career point in the game, becoming the quickest player in Texas A&M history to reach that plateau. The only active sophomore with 1,000+ career points, Carter is the quickest player in Division I since 2016 to reach that milestone, and the quickest SEC player since 1985 to reach 1,000 points.
