NORTH CHARLESTON, SC – The Big South Conference Women's Basketball Championship Tournament is less than a week away. Therefore, there is one thing North Carolina A&T wants to do as it approaches.
Keep it simple.
The Aggies cruised to another blowout win over Charleston Southern University (CSU), defeating the Buccaneers 76-42 Wednesday night at Buccaneer Fieldhouse. A&T beat the Bucs 88-50 at Corbett Sports Center on January 19.
A&T beat CSU in much the same way they did a month earlier. They took care of the basketball, turned CSU over, and used their defense to create offense. That's how the Aggies have won most of their games this season, in fact, and that's their strategy heading into Charlotte, N.C., for the conference tournament, March 1-6.
"If we can continue to take care of the ball along with being locked in defensively, we'll be on the right path with one game left heading into the Big South Tournament," said A&T coach Tarrell Robinson.
A&T (14-13, 11-6 Big South) is above .500 for the first time this season. The Aggies have won six of their last seven on the road. Meanwhile, the Bucs (2-25, 2-14 Big South) have lost nine straight.
The Aggies played a terrific first half. They shot 53.3 percent and assisted on 12 of their 16 field goals. But they did turn the ball over 10 times. While the turnovers did not prove costly as the Aggies led 39-23 at the half, with all things pointing toward March, they must correct those mistakes.
"I'm proud of my ladies' efforts and display of being able to make adjustments tonight," said Robinson. "We had 10 turnovers in the first half. I spoke to them about being on the same page and not overcomplicating the game. We finished with 13 turnovers for the game."
Junior point guard Shareka McNeill led the Aggies with 18 points on 7-for-9 shooting from the field and 4-for-6 shooting from 3-point range. She also had four assists, four rebounds and three steals. Graduate forward Chanin Scott shot 7-for-13 and finished with 16 points.
Graduate center Jazmin Harris came off the bench to score 12 points in 19 minutes of action, and graduate forward Kiana Adderton had 11 points and eight boards.
A&T never trailed on Wednesday. Scott scored five points in the first 3 ½ minutes of the game as the Aggies took a 9-0 lead.
A Madison Adamson jumper got the Bucs to within six at 13-7 with 3:45 remaining in the first quarter. Led by five points from Scott, the Aggies closed the first quarter on an 8-0 run to take a 21-7 lead.
The Bucs never got the lead under double-digits the rest of the way. Sharita Godfrey led the Bucs with 16 points.
A&T's remaining regular-season game is against USC Upstate at 1 p.m., Saturday, February 26 at Corbett. Then, the Aggies will open conference tournament play on March 1 at the Bojangles' Coliseum as they try to keep it simple to win their second straight conference tournament after winning the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) tourney last season.
