GREENSBORO - Johnson C. Smith's women's basketball
players may have come to Corbett Sports Center with a figurative Division II
label on their backs, but they didn't let that stop them from giving North
Carolina A&T a 40-minute vigorous tussle.
It took a late second-half surge, started by an Amber
Calvin 3-pointer as the shot clock ticked down, before the Aggies were finally
able to pull away with a 71-61 win. Following the tight win, N.C. A&T head
coach Patricia Cage-Bibbs was not upset. She was thankful.
"I can appreciate games like this because now they know
regardless of the opponent you have, you've got to play," said Bibbs, who earned
career win No. 492, and is now eight wins away from her 500th victory.
"Johnson C. Smith is a good team," she added. "You can't
take anything away from them. They are a well-coached team. They executed on
both ends. We told the ladies (at halftime) in the locker room, the things we've
been practicing; we need to see in the game."
The N.C. A&T women had good reason to be proud of
their early-season accomplishments. They had an impressive win over a team
ranked in the Mid-Major poll in Liberty, followed by wins over Clemson of the
ACC and Siena.
It only seemed reasonable that the Aggies would go out
and establish themselves as one of the best mid-major teams in the nation with
convincing wins over 1-win N.C. Central and Division II Johnson C. Smith. But NCCU gave the Aggies a closely contested
game, and the Golden Bulls held a 35-32 halftime lead over the Aggies on
Monday.
"This is a good game for us because they now know they're
going to get everyone's best game," said Bibbs. "People know we've defeated
some pretty good teams, so those same people are going to try to prove how good
they are by beating us."
The Aggies got the message by the second half against
JCSU. After JCSU shot 5-for-10 from 3-point range, the Golden Bulls missed all
seven of their 3-point attempts in the second half.
"We didn't play any serious defense in the first half,"
said Bibbs. "We were not intense. We got behind, and then we got intense. We
don't want it to be that way. The second half was a totally different ballgame
for us defensively."
Despite the Aggies better defense, JCSU still only
trailed by one, 58-57, with seven minutes to play.
N.C. A&T appeared ready to give JCSU the ball with
the slim lead as the shot clock ticked down to four seconds. Calvin recognized
the descending numbers and heaved up a one-hand jump shot that connected to put
the Aggies ahead by four.
Tracy King gave the Aggies a six-point advantage with a
jump shot. After two free throws from JCSU's Shavonda Price put the Golden
Bulls down 63-59, King scored again, this time off of a backdoor pass from Nikia
Gorham to give the Aggies a six-point lead with 4:18 to play. JCSU never got
any closer as the Aggies won their sixth straight game to improve to 6-2 on the
season.
Calvin finished with 10 points, seven assists, five
rebounds and five steals. JaQuayla Berry added 19 points and eight rebounds,
and Gorham finished with 15 points and nine rebounds. JCSU (6-3) had three
players score in double figures led by Terra Quattelbaum's 17 points.
"We're a team that is never going to give up,"
said Bibbs. "It doesn't matter how far we're down or what we're facing. Our
kids played all the way through tonight, so I'm proud of them."
The battled-tested Aggies head out on the road for the
rest of the month. Their five-game road trip begins in Williamsburg, Va., when
they face William & Mary Thursday, December 15 at 4:30 p.m. Three days
later, the Aggies play perennial women's basketball power Old Dominion in
Norfolk, Va., at 2 p.m.
N.C. A&T continues its rivalry against Charlotte
University in Charlotte on Dec. 21 at 7 p.m., before traveling to Wofford
University to play the Terriers the next day at 2 p.m. The road trip ends with
a game in Atlanta, Ga., versus Georgia Tech on Dec. 29 at 2 p.m.
