GREENSBORO-Head coach Patricia Cage-Bibbs kept her promise. Following the North Carolina A&T women's basketball team's loss to UNC-Wilmington on Monday, Bibbs said that the team would fix its problems, and start a new winning streak on Saturday.
The Aggies did just that, defeating the Bethune-Cookman Wildcats at Corbett Sports Center on Saturday, 69-54.
JaQuayla Berry also had a promise to keep.
"It was just JaQuayla and I, and I told her you've got to come up big. This is conference time, and you're All-MEAC," Bibbs said. "What you need to do is rebound. I asked her how many rebounds she was going to grab tonight. She said 10. And she did get 10. I don't know if she was counting during the game, to see if she got her quota, but she got her 10."
Berry ended the contest with 20 points and 10 boards, for her third double-double of the season and the ninth of her career. After not scoring in double figures in seven straight games, junior Nikia Gorham broke out for a near double-double of her own with 14 points and nine rebounds. Gorham, who started the first 12 games of the season, has been coming off the bench for the last three. The extra time watching the opponent helped Gorham, Bibbs said.
"She came up big with 14 points and nine boards. She did well, she played 24 minutes," Bibbs said. "It's really important, but not that important who you start. It's about putting the best people out there that can give you that energy, and we felt that we did. When you have people coming off the bench, they have time to see what they need to do. Nikia was sitting there, and she was watching the game focusing, and when she went in there, she did what she needed to do-grab rebounds and take those easy shots."
N.C. A&T (7-8, 2-0) remains perfect in MEAC competition this season after using strong rebounding and excellent three-point shooting by redshirt sophomore Amber Calvin to overcome the Wildcats (3-11, 0-2) and snap a six-game losing streak.
"I'm just happy to get this home win. It feels good, and it feels good in the locker room too," said Bibbs, who is 77-25 in MEAC competition with the Aggies, and is now seven games from her 500th career win.
"The kids came out with some energy today, they really did, and I feel that they did a good job rebounding."
The Aggies out-rebounded the Wildcats, 53-42 and had 12 steals with a pair of blocks in the game.
Ten minutes into the game, the Aggies trailed 14-8. But once Calvin got open beyond the arc, she scored on three straight 3-pointers to help propel the Aggies to a 28-24 lead at the half.
"Amber she got us going early, knocking down those shots that we needed early," Bibbs said. "She did a great job for us. We started Kelsei Ewings there at point so we could give Amber a break, and give her some looks."
N.C. A&T came out strong in the second half, and pulled away from the Wildcats. The Aggies shot 44 percent over the final 20 minutes. Bibbs said on Monday that one of the problems her team was having in recent games was that they were not seeing enough production from her upperclassmen.
"We know that it's conference now, we have to be ready every night and we cannot make mistakes," Bibbs said. "Because everyone wants to win, and they're going to give it all they have. These teams are good, and it's important to win this game, and to get better. Hopefully we can keep it going."
The Aggies will look to pull to .500 overall and stay undefeated in the conference on Monday when they take on Florida A&M at Corbett Sports Center. The Aggies promise to start the game at 6 p.m.
