GREENSBORO-North Carolina A&T head coach Tarrell
Robinson has something to smile about after seeing his team hand archrival N.C.
Central a 67-27 loss Saturday afternoon at Corbett Sports Center.
It was the first time the Aggies had held an opponent to
under 30 points in a game since 1995, when A&T defeated UNC Wilmington
55-25.
"I walked into the locker room and JaQuayla Berry said, 'Is
that a smile? Is coach finally smiling?'" Robinson said. "I'm a happy coach right now...I did not
envision a 40-point win. But I did
envision [my players] giving me their biggest effort. "
The Aggies (4-3, 1-0) gave Robinson plenty of reasons to
grin, after defeating the Eagles for the sixth straight game.
"We're tied for first place in the conference. That's the thing we talked about - half of
the league was going to be tied on top, and half the league was going to be on
the bottom. We definitely wanted to be
in the top," Robinson said. "My hat goes
off to my players and how we played defensively. I thought we did an excellent job on the
defensive end. I thought everybody
contributed to the win that we had today.
We talked about bouncing back from the Richmond game, meaning getting
off to a good start in the first half and the results spoke for themselves."
It wasn't hard for the North Carolina A&T women's
basketball team to come out with all pistons firing on Saturday afternoon with the
archrival Eagles in town. A&T and cruised to a definitive victory, taking a
29 point lead at the half. A&T held the Eagles to 20 percent shooting in
the game, and used 10 steals and a season-best eight blocks to clip the Eagles'
wings.
Junior guard Tracy King helped lift the Aggies to the
victory missing the Aggies last game with the Eagles because she was sidelined
with a meniscus injury. King made up for lost time by finishing with 22 points,
three assists, two blocks and two steals.
"I thought Tracy King really stepped up today and really
played well on both ends. I thought she
did a heck of a job on that Williams kid defensively," said Robinson, noting
that Chasidy Williams, a preseason All-MEAC second-team selection, was held to
just eight points in the game.
The Aggies pulled ahead to an 11-0 lead in the first four
minutes of the contest, buoyed by a pair of 3-pointers from King. The Aggie defense kept the Eagles on a tight
leash throughout the first half, as A&T forced 13 N.C. Central turnovers. The Aggie defense was also stingy around the
basket, as they collected seven blocks in the first half, including three from
redshirt freshman Eboni Ross. The Aggies
pulled ahead to 30-6 with under five minutes left on a jumper from sophomore
Adriana Nazario. After a layup by NCCU's
Amber Neely, the Aggies scored nine consecutive points capped off by a Lyons
3-pointer. Another 3-pointer from
Lyons made it 42-11, to give the sophomore 10 points in the game, as the Aggies
took a 42-13 halftime lead.
"I'm ecstatic that we won the game. It was a team effort, and it was a team
defensive effort. That's what we've preached and that's what we've been about
from Day One. It just feels good. I'm pleased and now we have 15 days before
our next opponent," Robinson said.
The Aggies will take a week off for finals before hitting
the court again on Dec. 15 at Liberty for a 2 p.m. match. They will spend the upcoming weeks working on
improving individually and building on their early success.
"We've still got to find motivation to come in and work hard
and make sure we're ready to go down to Lynchburg on the 15th,"
Robinson said.
