Williams comes up one point shy of her career high

Box Score
COLUMBIA, S.C., November 17, 2006 – North Carolina A&T’s women’s basketball team made two trips through one of the toughest conferences in women’s college basketball and walked away with a sense of what areas it needs to improve as its conference games approach.

After losing to No. 8 Georgia of the Southeastern Conference on Wednesday, Kellinda Zackery scored 28 points and grabbed 11 rebounds to lead the SEC’s South Carolina Gamecocks to a 117-63 win over the Aggies Friday night at the Colonial Center. The Gamecocks took advantage of their tremendous height advantage to score 37 second chance points.

“. I thought we were more aggressive offensively tonight than we were on Wednesday,’’ said head coach Patricia Cage-Bibbs. “They do a good job of getting the ball in the paint. They got a lot of 3-point plays on tonight. Learning to play good defense without fouling in the interior will come with time. Right now, we’re learning as we go, and every game is an opportunity for us to grow.”

Ahmad Williams led the Aggies with 18 points, while junior guard Amber Bland broke out of her shooting slump with 17 points on 2-for-4 shooting from 3-point range. She and Williams had six rebounds apiece to lead N.C. A&T on the glass. 

N.C. A&T (1-2) kept the game close through the first 10 minutes of the game. Williams scored from the right baseline to put the Aggies to within three with 13:27 remaining in the first half. After the Gamecocks increased their lead to seven, Bland hit a 3-pointer from the corner, the first of her Aggie career, to cut the lead to four.

Seventeen seconds later Bland intercepted a South Carolina pass a found Williams on the break with a bounce pass to close the gap to two at 15-13 with 12:46 to play in the first half.

The Gamecocks would take over on the boards from there. The Gamecocks grabbed five offensive boards during a 13-0 run that put the Gamecocks ahead 28-13 with 9:51 to play in the first half. The Aggies were also hurt by turnovers as South Carolina turned 17 first-half turnovers into 19 points.  

“We don’t have time to dwell on this,’’ said Bibbs. “We have a tough Wofford team coming in Monday, so we don’t have a lot of time to work on not turning the ball over and boxing out, but we will get correct those things and move forward.”

The Aggies host Wofford Monday evening at 5:30 p.m., at Corbett Sports Center before playing in the UNC-Greensboro Thanksgiving Tournament on Nov. 24-25.