AGGIES
LOSE TO BULLDOGS, WILL PLAY TUESDAYORANGEBURG, SC, March 3, 2006 -- For about 10 minutes on Friday, the North Carolina A&T women’s basketball team looked like a team poised to avoid its first play-in game since the 1995-1996 season.
But during the other periods of the game the Aggies found themselves down by 18 and 20 points twice. Deficits they could not ultimately overcome as S.C. State defeated the Aggies 71-64 to put the Aggies in a play-in game for next week’s MEAC Tournament in Raleigh.
The Aggies will go in as the No. 6 seed and will play Tuesday at 4 p.m., against either Bethune-Cookman or Morgan State. If Bethune-Cookman beats Florida A&M Saturday, the Aggies will get Morgan State. If Bethune-Cookman loses, the Aggies will play the Wildcats.
An opportunity to be either the fourth or fifth seed was a possibility for the Aggies going into Friday’s game if they could win.
“I thought we would come out and play better considering what we had on the line,’’ said Bibbs. “I like the way our ladies came back, but we can’t get in the habit of doing that. Good teams like South Carolina State are not going to let you get over the hump.”
“I hope we learned that tonight because we have to go into this tournament and win four games. It’s not going to be easy, so we need 40 minutes of strong basketball.”
Shareka Glover scored 16 of her 19 points in the second half. Bianca Johnson added 18 points on 8-for-12 shooting and LaKeisha Williams had 11.
N.C. A&T fell down by as many as 18 in the first half before putting together a many rally late to go into the locker room down 11. The Bulldogs extended their lead to 20 within the first three minutes of the second half at 47-27. But over the next 2 ˝ minutes the Aggies outscored the Bulldogs 10-0.
The run ended with a Melea Gibson put back of a Kira Tillman miss. The optimism would be short lived, however. The Bulldogs would go 6-for-6 from the floor and 2-for-2 from the free throw line to go back up by 20, 61-41 with 9:25 remaining.
From there, Glover and Williams began to bring the Aggies back, and hopes of a first-round bye resurfaced.
Williams got the lead under double-figures at the 3:55 mark with a layup off of a Glover steal. Melaney Denson, who had 17 points on 8-for-11 shooting, put the Bulldogs up 11 after getting open underneath the basket.
But Glover answered with her first 3-pointer of the game to put the Aggies down eight, 65-57 with 2:31 to play. Glover then used a crossover dribble to free herself up for another that knocked down the Bulldogs lead to five. After three Bulldog turnovers, the last resulting in a Tillman steal, the Aggies moved to within three on a Tillman runner with 37 seconds remaining.
It appeared the Aggies would get the ball back as Glover nearly stole the in-bounds pass and one of the officials called it off of a Bulldogs player. But the call was reversed, and the Bulldogs went on to hit 4 of 6 free throws down the stretch to seal the win.
The Aggies regular season will end at 9-18 overall and 9-9 in the MEAC.