SAVANNAH, Ga. (November 22, 2016) – North Carolina A&T women's basketball took on No. 19 West Virginia in the Savannah Invitational at the Savannah Civic Center on Tuesday night, losing to the Mountaineers 80-64.
Leadership was strong with the Aggie veterans on Tuesday as both fifth-year senior Dana Brown and graduate Aliyah Kilpatrick scored in the double figures. Brown finished with 22 points, including going 5-for-10 from 3-point range and Kilpatrick added 17 points with two blocks and five steals.
“I wish we had stepped up in the first quarter. We only had eight points to their 28, but Dana and Aliyah woke up and we were able to put together three really good quarters,” said head coach Tarrell Robinson. “I'm proud of our second half against the 19th-ranked team and now we just need to build on that.”
Over the course of the last three quarters, the Aggies outscored West Virginia 56-52 after the Mountaineers opened the game on a 22-2 run. A part of the Aggies recovery was the fact they shot a combined 48.1 percent (13-for-27) from the floor in the second and third quarters.
Momentum shifted in the second quarter. The Aggies (1-3) were not able to cut into the Mountaineers lead, but they were able to match the top-25 team point for point. Kilpatrick picked up six more points in the quarter to give her eight for the half. Over the final three minutes of the half, Kilpatrick scored five straight points and Michelle Fitzgerald hit a 3-pointer as the Aggies trailed 52-28 at the half.
The Aggies came into the third quarter picking up the first 11 points. N.C. A&T outscored the Mountaineers 24-13 in the third quarter, in large part to Brown's three 3-pointers. West Virginia's first points of the half came on a 3-pointer, but Brown quickly followed up with one of her own. The team was 3-for-4 from beyond the arc in the quarter. By the end of the quarter, N.C. A&T had cut the Mountaineer lead to 13.
The Aggies never got any closer as the Mountaineers (4-0) were able to get their lead back to as many as 21 in the fourth quarter.
Play continues for the Aggies Wednesday as they face Ball State at 2 p.m. The Cardinals enter the game coming off a 54-40 loss to Auburn on Tuesday. N.C. A&T last game of the tournament comes against Marist on Thanksgiving at 2 p.m.
“We will see how our bench does over the next two days because they got a lot of minutes today,” said Robinson. “We are going to need everybody. We have to have a fearless mentality and practice that every day. If we do that, we are as good as anybody. I told them we need to play all our games like we played the second half today. Hopefully we can do that.”
