GREENSBORO – North Carolina A&T head women's basketball coach Tarrell Robinson sent a warning to his team before its Tuesday evening game against Division II Newberry College at Corbett Sports Center.
Coastal Athletic Association (CAA) play nears. Therefore, Tuesday may be the last time you have to prove you belong in the rotation. Many of his players sent him a message back after the Aggies defeated the Wolves 99-49.
We want the playing time, coach!
A&T's bench scored 54 points on Tuesday, led by freshman Anaya Karriem, who scored a career-high 21 points to go along with seven rebounds and a career-best four steals on 7-for-13 shooting from the field and 2-for-4 shooting from 3-point range. Freshman guard Ja'naya Lindsey came off the bench to post 10 points, seven rebounds and three steals on 4-for-4 shooting from the field.
Another freshman, point guard Jamiya Lindsey, scored in double figures for the first time in her career, finishing with 10 points on 4-for-6 shooting from the field and 2-for-3 shooting from beyond the 3-point arc.
"Even though they're a Division II team and a really good one at that, I think this was probably our best all-around performance as a team," said Robinson. "And I say that because we'll get one or two people to show up, but today our bench really looked good. Our bench actually played better than our starters in terms of stats. This young lady beside me (Karriem) and Ja'naya Myers really played well, so it's good to finally see our freshmen start to turn the corner."
The Aggies shot 55.4 percent from the field, including 10-for-22 (.455) from 3-point range, marking the second straight game the Aggies reached double-figures in 3-pointers made. Having back-to-back games with double-digit 3-pointers is something the Aggies have not done since January 19 and January 22 of 2021 against Charleston Southern and Winthrop.
Two Marykate Kent free throws gave the Wolves the lead at 12-10 four minutes into the game. Three minutes later, a Ryann Hernandez 3-pointer brought Newberry to within two of A&T at 17-15. The Aggies owned the game from there, with the initial surge led by freshmen.
Freshman guard Crystal Hardy sparked A&T's 9-1 run to end the first quarter as she netted a three, followed by a 3-pointer and a 3-point play from Karriem to give the Aggies a 26-16 lead going into the second quarter. A mid-range jumper from fifth-year senior center Chaniya Clark was quickly followed by a 3-pointer from sophomore guard Eva Andrews to put the Aggies ahead by 15 to open the second quarter.
Karriem ended the period with a three to give the Aggies a 42-23 lead at the half. Karriem scored 15 of her 21 in the first half.
"It's a big advantage," said the 6-foot-2 Karriem about being a post player who can shoot from the perimeter. "It's harder for other posts to come out and guard me sometimes because they don't know what I'm going to do because I can shoot, I can attack (off the dribble), or post up. I feel like it gives us some leeway because we have posts that can shoot the ball."
The other post Aggies fans have grown accustomed to seeing shoot from the perimeter is the 6-4 Clark. Clark finished with 13 points and six rebounds on 4-for-6 shooting. She also made all five of her free throw attempts. Junior forward Darrionna Howard added 10 points and eight rebounds.
CAA play opens for A&T on Friday, January 2, when the Aggies host defending CAA conference tournament champions William & Mary at 7 p.m., from Corbett Sports Center. A&T, the defending CAA regular-season champions, received some good news going into conference play. Preseason second-team All-CAA performer Paris Locke returned to the lineup after missing five games with a lower leg injury.
Locke came off the bench to play 20 minutes, ending the evening with five points, four rebounds and four assists.
"We've played some really good teams," said Robinson. "I was looking at the NET (NCAA Evaluation Tool) rankings. We've played three teams in the top 25 of the NET, so we've played the best. There's nothing that's in front of us that we should be afraid of. Nothing that anybody's going to throw at us that we haven't seen. Let's go ahead and get it done."
