HAMPTON, Va. (January 4, 2017) – Give the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference credit. The MEAC opened the conference schedule by pitting two teams who have owned at least a share of the last nine MEAC regular-season women's basketball championships in North Carolina A&T and Hampton. The Pirates won the back-and-forth battle 64-57 Wednesday night at the Convocation Center.
“This is one of the best environments against one of the best teams in our league,” said head coach Tarrell Robinson. “We have to grow quick, but you're not going to see a better defensive team and a competitive environment than Hampton. I think we handled those two factors pretty well tonight.”
Graduate guard Aliyah Kilpatrick scored in double figures for the eighth time this season, finishing with 11 points along with six assists and five rebounds. Dana Brown also had 11, hitting three 3-pointers in the second half. Center Charnise Tyler also reached double figures with 10 points while also adding eight rebounds.
“While I'm glad we had three ladies scoring in double figures, I'd like to see four or five,” said Robinson. “We are a more well-rounded team than we showed tonight and we are going to continue to preach balance and sharing the ball.”
N.C. A&T (4-10, 0-1 MEAC) struggled to score coming out of the locker room in the third quarter. Halfway through, only Kilpatrick had managed to get points on the board and it would be another four minutes before Whitney Martin could add one more from the line. Hampton meanwhile, gained the momentum early in the second half. Chanel Green's layup gave the Pirates their biggest lead of the game at 11, 39-28 with 4:37 remaining in the third. The Pirates still had an 11-point lead two minutes later, 43-32 before the Aggies caught fire and gained momentum as their bench erupted with excitement. A 10-2 Aggies over the final two minutes of the quarter included a layup from Tyler and 3-pointers from Michelle Fitzgerald and Brown.
The shift kept the N.C. A&T within one possession heading into the fourth quarter down 45-42. Good times kept coming for the Aggies as they opened the final quarter by scoring the first four points to take a 46-45 on layups from Tyler and senior Whitney Martin. Hampton regained the lead on a Monnaz Finney-Smith 3-pointer and never relinquished the lead again. Brown connected on 3-pointers in two consecutive Aggie possessions to get to within one, 54-52.
Tyler got the lead down to one, 58-57, with 1:38 to play. Mikayla Sayle answered with a layup. The Pirates (7-7, 1-0 MEAC) clinched the win when on consecutive possessions, Brown was not able to connect on her 3-point attempt. Another factor was first-half injury to junior Kala Green.
“Things really changed for us when Kala left. She is one more ball handler for us, and I think the environment for our young bench was new to them and we couldn't get past it,” said Robinson. “The turnovers really hurt us and it's something we are going to get better about moving forward.”
The Aggies 24 turnovers turned into a 27-12 Pirates advantage in points off turnovers. Malia Tate-Defreitas, the reigning two-time MEAC Player of the Year, led the Pirates with 20 points even though she was just 6-for-22 from the floor. MEAC play continues for the Aggies as they host Delaware State (1-11) on Saturday, Jan. 7 at 2 p.m., followed by Maryland Eastern Shore (6-5) on Jan. 9.
