BLACKSBURG, Va.-After a week off the court, the North
Carolina A&T women's basketball team struggled to get things started
offensively on Friday afternoon at Cassell Coliseum against Virginia Tech.
The Aggies had their lowest scoring output of the season in
a 58-39 loss. The Aggies, said A&T
head coach Tarrell Robinson, seemed to have been affected by the long holiday
break.
"I wish we didn't have to let them go home for the break,"
Robinson said. "I think the way we ended against William & Mary-making a
run - it being defense and doing the little things. If we had played this game
a couple of days (after William & Mary), instead we took days off, and I
think we just got away from the things that we worked on in the first half of
the season."
The Aggies (6-5) shot a season-low 24 percent and had a
season-low 26 rebounds as the Hokies outrebounded the Aggies by 22.
"We didn't hit shots, we didn't do a good job of sharing the
ball. We had one assist and 13
turnovers. They did a good job of
guarding us, switching some of our screens and stuff, but we just didn't take
advantage of it," Robinson said.
An 8-0 Hokies run allowed them to take a 16-8 lead in the
first half. A JaQuayla Berry 3-pointer put the Aggies down by, but Virginia
Tech's Alyssa Fenym quickly answered with a three of her own to push lead back
to eight. The Aggies were never able to get any closer than five the rest of
the way as the Hokies closed the half on a 12-4 run to take a 31-18 lead at
halftime.
Virginia Tech increased its lead to 16 in the second half on
a pair of free throws by Nia Evans. But the
Aggies fought, and kept the Hokies scoreless for more than four minutes, until a
jumper by Uju Ugoka made it a 47-29 with 8:30 remaining. Berry led the Aggies
with 16 points on 8-for-8 shooting from the free throw line.
"I thought we had a lot of moments where we guarded them
down to five and four seconds and then we'd have a mental lapse where we
finally broke down in the final seconds or gave up an offensive rebound," said
Robinson about an Aggies team that surrendered 19 second chance points. "It's
about finishing plays. We've got to get
better with that."
The Aggies will look to improve in their next game as they
host Elon at 2 p.m., for a New Year's Eve matinee at Corbett Sports Center.
