EAST GREENSBORO – North Carolina A&T, who dominated the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) Southern Division in women's basketball during the 2020-21 season, finished the regular season by completing a four-game season sweep of arch-rival North Carolina Central, 78-56, Sunday afternoon at Corbett Sports Center.
The Aggies regular season comes to an end with a 12-2 overall record and a 9-1 record in the conference.
Graduate guard Chanin Scott nearly became the first Lady Aggie to record a triple-double as she totaled 11 rebounds, 11 points, eight assists and six steals.
Senior forward Deja Winters led the team with a game-high 20 points and three steals.
Freshman guard Sean Kelly Darks added 14 points on 4-for-8 shooting from the floor. Senior forward Jayla Jones-Pack recorded 11 points, four rebounds and two blocks. Junior guard Jasmen Walton added nine points, and freshman guard D'Mya Tucker added seven points and nine rebounds.
The Aggies recorded 18 steals and forced 29 NCCU Eagle turnovers.
N.C. A&T led from start to finish starting with junior guard Kennedy Boyd's 3-pointer at the 8:50 mark of the first quarter.
The Eagles (3-10, 1-5) kept things close for the majority of the first half until a Darks 3-pointer with 7:07 remaining in the first half gave the Aggies their first double-digit lead of the game at 29-17.
The Aggies lead never dropped below 10 for the remainder of the game. N.C. A&T's lead ballooned to as many as 20, 40-20, on a Levossie Taylor jump shot in the lane with 3:01 remaining in the first half. NCCU scored the final four points of the half to head into the locker room, trailing 40-24.
NCCU even used a 10-0 run in the third quarter to cut N.C. A&T's lead to 50-40 with 2:36 remaining in the third quarter. The Aggies then reentered two of the best scorers in the league in Winters and Scott and rebuilt their enormous lead.
Winters splashed back-to-back 3-pointers to increase the lead to 16. The Aggies then put their finishing touches on the Eagles 3 ½-minutes into the fourth quarter with a 9-0 spurt. Darks had four points during the run, and Scott capped it off by taking advantage of an open lane on a fastbreak.
She finished at the rim while being fouled. Scott completed the 3-point play to give the Aggies a 69-47 lead with 4:21 remaining.
Anissa Rivers led the Eagles with her third straight double-double versus the Aggies as she finished with 13 points and 15 rebounds.
The Aggies enter the MEAC tournament in Norfolk, Va., March 10-13 as the No. 1 seed out of the southern division. As a result, they will receive a bye into the tournament semifinals to be played Friday, March 12 at noon from Norfolk Scope Arena.
