BALTIMORE – The North Carolina A&T women's basketball team had two significant problems on Wednesday – a slow start and Coppin State's Keena Samuels. Both resulted in a 65-59 loss to Coppin State at the Physical Education Complex. Samuels played all 40 minutes and finished with 25 points and three steals on 8-for-15 shooting. Samuels scored seven of the Eagles 20 points during a 20-5 first quarter that put N.C. A&T into an early double-figure deficit.
“I know coach (Derek) Brown does a good job of getting his ladies ready,” said N.C. A&T coach Tarrell Robinson. “We talked about being able to survive that first wave in the first quarter because we knew they were going to be ready to play. Obviously just talking about it is not good enough; we didn't do it.”
Graduate center Aprill McRae led the Aggies with 10 points and despite shooting just 34.5 percent from the field the Aggies did chip away at the Eagles lead. The Aggies connected on three 3-pointers in the second quarter, the last one by junior Whitney Martin to close the Aggies to within six at 28-23 with 2:48 remaining.
After a CSU free throw, McRae took a pass from sophomore Kala Green to score on a short jumper to move the Aggies to within four at halftime, 29-25. “I thought after their big start the game was pretty even, but we had already dug that hole and given them enough confidence to get over the hump at the end of the game,” said Robinson.
The Aggies (9-10, 5-3 MEAC) did eventually take their first lead of the night as McRae scored inside to give the Aggies a 50-49 lead with five minutes to play in the second half. But the Eagles (6-11, 3-2 MEAC) responded with a 7-0 capped off by a Samuels steal and layup.
“I think Keena Samuels is going to be one of the best players in this league,” said Robinson about the sophomore. “She's pretty darn good. We talked about how good she was off the ball (before the game). She has a knack for scoring and knocking down that mid-range jumper, and she showed up tonight and we didn't have anyone that would step up and stop her.”
The Aggies never got any closer than five after Samuels' layup. She hit 5 of 6 free throws to close out the game.
“We responded (in the second half) in terms of hitting shots, but we were inconsistent in terms of our effort, offensive rebounding, getting to loose balls. Their intensity and their effort was better than ours,” said Robinson.
N.C. A&T will return home on Saturday, Jan. 30 to face Savannah State at 2 p.m., in what will be a rematch game from three weeks ago. The Aggies won that contest 69-59 in Savannah, Ga.
