Texas A&M's Endyia Rogers reveals her approach in first game back after mid-February surgery

Texas A&M got a boost for their opening game in the SEC Tournament in the form of a return from Endyia Rogers. It’s her first outing back in almost a month but that isn’t stopping her from making an early impact for the Aggies.

Rogers spoke with the SEC Network on the way to the locker room after her team took a 25-21 lead at the break over Mississippi State. She said that she feels good out on the floor as she regains her footing by playing in a way where she’s comfortable so far.

“I’m kind of just playing my own pace. I’m not letting anybody speed me up,” said Rogers. “I’m still trying to work my way back in.”

Rogers suffered a knee injury back on February 11th in a win over Kentucky. She then underwent a surgery a week later to clean up the issue. That caused her to be out of the Aggies’ lineup up until today on March 7th.

With her out over those final six games, Texas A&M went 1-5 to close their regular season.

Rogers, a graduate student in her first season in College Station after four at USC and Oregon, is the team’s leader in scoring and assists. She has averaged 12.8 points, 4.2 rebounds, four assists, and 1.3 steals in her 23 games.

Now, coming out of the half, Rogers and the Aggies will need to reassert themselves after the Bulldogs made a run that cut as much as an eight-point advantage down to two in the closing minutes of the first half. In order to do that, Rogers says she and her teammates need to settle in on both ends .

“We just need to score and calm down. Get stops, rebound,” Rogers said.

Joni Taylor praises Texas A&M’s ‘active’ start

Texas A&M finished the first quarter of their SEC Tournament matchup against Mississippi State with a five-point lead. That advantage for the Aggies was a credit to their energetic start overall in Greenville according to Joni Taylor.

Taylor assessed the way that her team opened the game in an interview before the start of the second quarter on the SEC Network. She started by discussing the Aggies’ defensive success as they guarded well and put up an effort on the glass.

“I thought we were really active,” said Taylor. “We did a good job of making it hard for Jessika (Carter) to catch it. If she’s shooting the high-post jumper, she’s very capable of making that but we’ll live with that shot. She can’t get it on the block.”

“Then we were just good at boxing them out,” Taylor added. “They’re excellent on the boards. I thought we were really committed to boxing out and making them be one and done.”