GREENSBORO – North Carolina A&T's turnover policy never really had a chance of being enacted at A&T's next practice. Still, if the Aggies do not take care of the basketball on Thursday, it will be enforced. Despite turning over the basketball 34 times against the Winston-Salem State University (WSSU) Rams, the Aggies cruised to a 74-43 win in non-conference women's basketball at Corbett Sports Center on Sunday afternoon.
The Aggies hope to get their miscues fixed as they welcome nationally ranked University of North Carolina (UNC) Tar Heels to Corbett on Thursday at 7 p.m. tipoff. It will mark the second straight year the Tar Heels will play in Corbett. A&T had 10 different players score on Sunday, led by sophomore Elliott Jessup's 10 points and eight rebounds. The Aggies also had 10 different players turn the ball over.
Tarrell Robinson, the Aggies' all-time winningest coach, says his threshold for turnovers in a game is 14. If his team exceeds 14 and loses, they must run the difference, which means a loss to WSSU would have cost his team 20 wind sprints. Robinson has come to expect opponents pressuring the basketball to cause his team to turn it over.
"Literally everybody that we have played up to this point since we showed 21 turnovers against Texas Tech, 23 against TCU, 24 against New Mexico, comes after us," Robinson said. "The film is out. That's what we're going to have to deal with, so it's not that we don't expect it. We try to prepare them for it."
As hard as the Rams played, the Aggies proved too big and too talented for an upset, improving to 2-3 on the season. The Rams cut off passing lanes, did an excellent job of doubling A&T star center Chaniya Clark, and double-teamed ball-handlers when the ball crossed halfcourt. But WSSU's aggressiveness also resulted in the Aggies making it to the free throw line 37 times.
They made 25 of them. And when the Aggies did get shots up on Sunday, they made them. A&T shot 56.1 percent (23-41) from the floor, making 13 of 16 shots (.813) in the second half. Plus, for all the turnovers the Rams caused, the Aggies still outscored WSSU 33-24 in points off turnovers. In addition, the Rams had an 18-11 advantage in offensive rebounds but were still outscored 14-8 in second-chance points.
A&T closed the first quarter on a 9-2 run to take a 16-6 lead. The Rams did get to within seven, 17-10, four minutes into the second quarter on a putback by Maia Charles. A couple of floaters from freshman point guard Jamyia Lindsey helped the Aggies build a 21-11 lead with four minutes remaining in the first half before another Charles bucket got the Rams to within eight. A&T scored the next six points, capped off by a Darrionna Howard putback to give the Aggies a double-figure lead at 27-13. The Aggies carried a double-figure lead into the half at 29-18.
"I just talked about them playing harder and competing," said Robinson about his halftime speech. "We tried to establish an inside presence. Obviously, we had the size, so we were trying to encourage getting the ball into the post. They did a good job of fronting and eyeing Shaq. And then we weren't able to see the skip pass because they had a man sitting in on the help side, so that we couldn't get the ball over the top. Again, hats off to them for their game plan and the level of pressure they put on us."
Over the first 7 ½ minutes of the third quarter, the Aggies outscored the Rams 21-8, culminating in back-to-back 3-pointers from graduate guard Jordan Brown and freshman guard Crystal Hardy. A&T scored 24 points in the third quarter and led 53-33 going into the fourth quarter.
"I think we had a fantastic crowd, and this was a good environment," said Robinson. "When it's a rivalry game, records don't matter, and their team came in and literally set the tone. I told them: 'You probably are playing against young women who wanted to be in that jersey that you have on. What does that mean to you?'
We'll use this for motivation in terms of moving forward," Robinson continued. "We've got to make sure we're the hardest working team, especially in our gym in front of our fans. We had a really good crowd, and I appreciate that they came out on a Sunday afternoon."
Hopefully, the crowd is even bigger on Thursday when the Heels come to town.
