GREENSBORO – North Carolina Central did what underdog archrivals are supposed to do. The Eagles tried their best to spoil the Aggies MEAC regular-season co-champions celebration. But despite NCCU's best efforts, the North Carolina A&T women's basketball did celebrate as the Aggies pulled away late to earn a 60-48 win over the Eagles at Corbett Sports Center Thursday night.
The Aggies (16-11) finished 12-4 in the conference to earn a share of the title with Bethune-Cookman. BCU will be the No. 1 seed at next week's MEAC tournament at the Norfolk Scope in Norfolk, Va., by winning the tiebreaker over the Aggies. N.C. A&T will go in as the No. 2 seed for the third time in four years. They will face the winner of Tuesday's No. 7 Florida A&M vs. No. 10 Delaware State game on Wednesday. A time for the Wednesday game has not been announced.
N.C. A&T won its seventh MEAC regular-season title and its first since 2010.
“That's what we're about,” said N.C. A&T head coach Tarrell Robison who was an assistant coach on two of the Aggies regular-season championship teams. “It took a team effort. Dana Brown woke up for us, Kala Green played well; we came together tonight to win a championship.”
Brown rebounded from an 0-for-12 night at BCU Monday night and spearheaded the win for the Aggies by scoring 19 points on 4-for-7 shooting from 3-point range. Graduate center Aprill McRae finished her career at Corbett with 18 points and nine rebounds. McRae along with Christina Carter, Adriana Nazario and graduate transfer Courtney Powell were honored as a part of Senior Day.
Robinson complimented his senior class for their commitment to winning a championship as Aggies. McRae and Carter believed in Robinson enough to transfer from VCU when Robinson left his assistant coach's position there to become N.C. A&T's head coach. Nazario graduated last May, but still decided to use her final year of eligibility to win a title. Powell transferred from the University of Memphis for her final year of college basketball.
NCCU (5-23, 3-13 MEAC) looked poised to spoil the night for the foursome. The Eagles jumped out to a 9-0 lead and held the Aggies without a field goal over the first five minutes of the game. The Aggies tied the game at 9 over the next three minutes, but NCCU still had an 11-9 lead at the end of the first quarter. A Tisha Dixon layup put the Eagles ahead 25-24 with a minute remaining in the first half before McRae gave the Aggies the one-point halftime lead by catching a Powell pass in the post to score on a tough layup.
N.C. A&T even found themselves down by five with 2:11 to play in the third quarter before two Brown free throws and a Brown three tied the game. After two free throws from NCCU's Morgan Jones, Kenya Hailey whipped a pass to McRae for a layup as the Aggies went into the fourth quarter tied at 39.
Jones' free throw with 5:24 to play in the game gave the Eagles a 46-45 lead. That's when the Aggies made their push to clinch their portion of the MEAC regular-season title. Brown's pass inside to McRae led to a layup that stalled on the rim before falling in. McRae was fouled on the play and completed the 3-point play. After three Aggie free throws, McRae swung a pass over to Brown for a 3-pointer that gave the Aggies 54-46 lead with 1:47 to play.
McRae added two more free throws before Brown confidently knocked down another three to give the Aggies a 13-point lead under a minute to play as the Aggies and their crowd began to sense a championship was in hand.
“We can't show up the way we showed up today if we want to win the tournament,” said Robinson. “We've got to build some consistency within our group. We can't start slow and finish fast in the tournament because it is a one-and-done situation. We're going to give the ladies some rest and be ready to go next week.”
