After coming off a win just less than a week ago against Alabama, Georgia couldn’t sustain its momentum when Texas A&M came into Athens. The Bulldogs lost 64-47 to the 16th-ranked Aggies on Thursday night in Stegeman Coliseum.

The first half wasn’t the best offensive performance from either team. Texas A&M couldn’t find any room to score and shot below 30% from the field, while Georgia barely shot over 40%.

Most of Georgia’s offensive and defensive explosiveness was lost due to the departure of Que Morrison, who left the game with a shoulder injury and never returned. The absence was evident all throughout the game.

“It hurt us,” junior Gabby Connally said. “She’s a great player, she brings a lot of energy. She does everything.”

Morrison was coming off a stellar performance where she scored a career-high 18 points. Head coach Joni Taylor noticed how much the game changed when Morrison went out.

“It changed everything,” Taylor said. “Que’s a very important piece of our team, offensively and defensively. She’s our spark plug and our energy, so when she goes down, it changes things dramatically.”

In the midst of Morrison’s absence, Georgia and Texas A&M played tough and physical, especially on the inside. Georgia only led by one point going into halftime, and when the second half started, the Aggies took the lead early and started to settle into a steady offensive rhythm. Texas A&M had a 41-23 scoring advantage in the final 20 minutes of the game.

“I think we just had some mental breakdowns,” Taylor said. “We had a lack of discipline on the defensive end of the floor. There’s some things that we just do in our sleep, that we just didn’t do correctly.”

Jenna Staiti led Georgia in scoring with 15 points. Stephanie Paul followed behind closely with 12 points and a team-high six boards. However, the biggest statistic of the night came from Texas A&M’s N’dea Jones, who collected a game-high 20 rebounds and 13 points.

Georgia has carried a lot of success in outrebounding its opponents but couldn’t find a way to do that against a team which carries size and strength. The Aggies outrebounded the Bulldogs 42-31.

“During practice, we watched film and we saw that we got out-rebounded,” Jones said. “In order to win this game we needed to rebound, and that was one of our key goals.”

The Bulldogs have three more games remaining in their SEC regular season schedule. Taylor emphasized that this loss has to be put behind them.

“We don’t really have a choice,” Taylor said. “Que goes down, obviously that’s heartbreaking for our team because of how much she means. We still have to figure out a way to come back tomorrow and get ready to play the next game.”

Printed with permission from The Red & Black independent student media organization based in Athens, Georgia; redandblack.com/sports