Aggies will play Wednesday morning at 10 against the No. 8/9 seed winner

Box Score
GREENSBORO, March 6, 2008 – The North Carolina A&T women’s basketball team broke the school record for wins in a season with its 93-60 win over Norfolk State on Thursday night from Irvin-Corbett Court. Then head coach Patricia Cage-Bibbs set down a new challenge for the team.

Do it again.

The Aggies improved to 23-6 overall and 15-1 into the conference as they head into next week’s MEAC Tournament in Raleigh as the No. 1 seed and MEAC regular-season champion. Freshman Jalessa Sams led the Aggies with 20 points and seven rebounds while Ta’Wuana Cook and Brittanie Taylor-James had 14 points apiece.

“I hope we break it again with me as the coach,’’ said Bibbs. “It’s a wonderful honor for my ladies to remember, but the thing about records they are made to be broken. I hope they don’t become complacent and take it upon themselves to break it again next year.”

The Aggies open tournament play on Wednesday morning at 10 from the RBC Center in Raleigh. The Aggies will play the winner between the Florida A&M/Howard game played on Tuesday. The Aggies beat the Rattlers once and the Bison twice during the season. If the Aggies win they will play the 4/5 (Hampton/Maryland-Eastern Shore) winner Friday at noon.

It could set up an interesting match-up between the Aggies and the only MEAC team to beat them this season – Hampton. Before the Aggies could get to Raleigh, they had to take care of last-place Norfolk State on Thursday. They did just that.

The Aggies shot 52.9 percent from the field and forced the Spartans into 33 turnovers, marking the second time this season they made the Spartans turn the ball over more than 30 times. It was the 10^th time this season the Aggies have caused an opponent to turn the ball over more than 30 times in a game.

“We wanted to make sure we went to work tonight,’’ said Bibbs. “Tonight was the preparation for the tournament. We wanted to see a lot of kids get some action because we’re going to need our bench to win the tournament. I thought we saw what we wanted to see tonight from the Shantar Waddell’s and Brittane Neely’s. I think (Tyronnica Alford) is ready to be that quality backup at point guard.”

The Aggies bench scored 42 points on Thursday. It, however, took the Aggies 15 minutes to shake itself from the Spartans (5-22, 1-15). Neely took a lob pass from Cook and sparked a 10-2 run that ended with a Sams layup to give N.C. A&T 35-23 lead with 2:44 remaining in the first half.

The Spartans’ Danielle Tate cut the lead to 10 on a layup before Amber Bland’s three ignited a 10-0 Aggies run to end the half and give N.C. A&T a 45-25 halftime lead. “We can’t wait to get to the tournament,’’ said Sams, whose 20 points were a career high. “We feel like we have a lot to prove. People still don’t respect us despite all we’ve done this year. From this point on, is all about winning the tournament.”