Nine Aggies play, six score in double figures

Box Score
GREENSBORO, January 27, 2007 – North Carolina A&T’s women’s basketball team continued its winning ways at home on Saturday afternoon with a convincing 86-58 conference win over Norfolk State at Corbett Sports Center. Six different Aggies scored in double figures led by Brittanie Taylor-James’ 18 points.

Lonise Coulter added 14 points and nine boards, while Amber Bland added 17. Shantar Waddell put in her second consecutive strong performance and her second double-double of the season with 10 points and 13 rebounds. The freshman out of Wilmington is shooting 77 percent from the floor in her last two games.

“Shantar is a young lady who is gaining so much confidence,’’ said head coach Patricia Cage-Bibbs, whose team returned to Corbett Sports Center after 19 days away. “All of our ladies are growing. You can see it each game, but we still have so much room to get better. We’re going to enjoy this win, but we have a very good team coming in here Monday, so we’re going to need to play with the same intensity.”

Ta’Wuana “Tweet” Cook and Ahmad Williams were the other two Aggies in double figures. They had 13 and 10 respectively. The Aggies host Hampton on Monday, a school where Bibbs spent seven seasons and won three MEAC titles.

Although Norfolk State’s record wasn’t impressive coming into Saturday’s game, the Spartans did have a win over the tough Hampton team Bibbs described. North Carolina A&T would remove all doubts of an upset early.

N.C. A&T opened the game on an 11-2 in the first five minutes of the game. When Nyra Taborn hit two free throws and Lonise Coulter hit a short jumper from the corner, the Aggies led 23-11 with 7:36 remaining in the first half. The Aggies would not let the lead creep under double figures for the remainder of the afternoon.

In fact, Taborn and Taylor-James ignited an 11-2 run that that saw Taylor-James contribute to nine of the 11 points with two field goals and two assists (one went to Amber Bland on a three). The run ended with a Taylor-James to Coulter layup that gave the Aggies a 32-13 lead with 4:09 to play in the first half.

It wasn’t just the offense working for the Aggies, they allowed the Spartans just two field goals over the last eight minutes of the first half and when Taylor James drove, stopped and pulled up for a successful three, the Aggies had their largest halftime lead of the season at 44-15.   

The Aggies improved to 11-8 overall and 6-2 in the MEAC. With Florida A&M’s loss to Delaware State, the Aggies are in third, just a half game behind the second-place Rattlers, and two games behind league-leading Coppin State.

The Spartans were led by Areya Walker and Ashley Green’s 11 points. The Aggies contest against Hampton starts at 4 p.m., on Monday.