After Texas A&M extended its win streak by taking down nationally-ranked Kentucky at home on Sunday afternoon, it's safe to say head coach Gary Blair has the Aggies playing at a high level. A big reason for the recent surge is sophomore guard Chennedy Carter because she has just been flat-out balling lately in SEC play.
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Not only did she drop 20 points in the win over the Wildcats at Reed Arena, the 5-foot-7 star guard also dropped 28 points on the road at Auburn this week, including the game-winning floater in the lane with four seconds to play.
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With her play this season after an electric freshman year, everyone knows Carter is special. With higher expectations heaped upon the Aggies from last season, coaches focusing game plans for her, and the additional pressure of Blair wanting her to be a two-way player, Carter has risen to the occasion and proved a lot of her haters wrong.
Carter is averaging 21.5 points, 4.6 rebounds, and 3.6 assists in 17 games this season and she is getting her buckets any way that she can get them. She is shooting 3-pointers, getting to the rack, and even shooting floaters like she did the other night to beat Auburn. After watching her game more closely this season, it's safe to say that she is one of the best guards in college basketball.
If you had to describe her game using some of the prolific scoring guards in the NBA, she would be a great comparison to Damian Lillard of the Portland Trail Blazers. Like Lillard, Carter is an aggressive scorer who is deceptively strong and can finish tough shots around the rim against bigs. She galvanizes her team, and is often the "go-to player" with the game on the line.
The most impressive part of her game that makes her a mirror image of Lillard is that she has the clutch gene and the Auburn game was not the only time Carter made a big-time shot.
Perhaps her greatest game-winner was last season when the Aggies played against DePaul. The Aggies were down 17 points and she took over the game to help lead the fourth-largest comeback in the history of the NCAA Tournament. She shot a game winning 3-pointer with under 10 seconds on the clock when a two-pointer would have tied it. She swished that three and let everyone in the arena know about it. The only thing she was missing was Lillard's patented watch tap, but she's definitely the female version of Dame Dollar.
