North Carolina A&T used its size advantage inside and the all-round play of Brittanie Taylor-James to race past fourth-seeded Maryland-Eastern Shore 74-56 Friday in semifinal action of the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference tournament at the Lawrence Joel Veterans Memorial Coliseum.
The top-seeded Lady Aggies, who improved to 25-6 earned a spot in the Saturday’s noon title game, their second appearance in the championship contest in as many years. North Carolina A&T will meet the winner of Friday’s second semifinal game between sixth-seeded Hampton and seventh-seeded Florida A&M, both upset winners earlier.
Coach Pat Bibbs and her team will seek to reverse last year’s outcome, when they made into the championship game as the top seed, but lost 72-70 to Coppin State, which earned the league’s automatic bid to the NCAA tournament.
“It’s been our goal to get to the championship game,” said Bibbs. “Not only getting there but to win it. We are blessed to get back to the championship. It was not an easy route,” she continued, but we are here, we are excited and we will be ready to play.
“This game was a tough game,” she continued. “We knew it was going to be. Having played this team (UMES) twice and beating them twice...you know they say the third time is the charm. We had to fight for everything today, but we came to win this tournament.”
The 6-0 Taylor-James had 20 points to lead the Lady Aggies. Lamona Smalley, also 6-0, and Ta’Wauna Cook each added 10. Smalley also had nine rebounds, one less that teammate Jaleesa Sams, who led everyone on the boards with 10. The Lady Aggies enjoyed a 39-33 edge on the boards
April McBride, who had to sit for most of the first half due to two early fouls, paced the Lady Hawks with 14 points, all in the second half. Casey Morton added 10 points and Adobi Agbasi eight.
Morton and Jasmine Speed, who finished with seven points, each had six rebounds for UMES, which ended its campaign at 15-14.
The Lady Aggies, who led 28-17 at the half, after opening up an early 15-point lead, saw their lead dwindle to two ? 35-33 ? when Kanzes Battin got a follow shot to climax a 16-7 UMES run with 16:02 left.
Following a media timeout, the Lady Aggies scored seven straight points, including a 3-pointer by Cook, to go ahead 42-33 with 14:07 on the clock, but the Lady Hawks rallied once more and got to within five, 44-39, at the 9:37 mark before North Carolina A&T regained control of the contest with a 10-2 spree that put the favorite ahead 54-41 with 6:37 showing.
UMES got the deficit back to 10 at 57-47 with 4:49 to play, but seven straight points by North Carolina A&T pushed the lead to 64-47 with just 3:36 on the scoreboard. Bibbs’ team took its largest lead of the game when reserve Tyronnica Alford made two free throws to make the score 74-54 with under a minute remaining.
Tiffany Reid got a lay-up the Lady Hawks with 25 seconds left for the final margin.
The Lady Aggies started quickly, going on a 13-0 run after allowing an opening 3-pointer by UMES’ Jasmine Speed to take a 13-3 lead with 13:35 on the first-period clock.
The lead swelled to 28-13 on a follow shot by Smalley with 2:24 left in the period, however, the Lady Hawks scored the last four points of the half to trail 28-17 at the break.
UMES head coach Fred Batchelor noted that his team made things easy for the Lady Aggies at times with some miscues, but he praised both the effort of his team and that of North Carolina A&T.
“I thought there were stretches where they took advantage of some of the mistakes we made,” Batchelor said. North Carolina A&T made some big shots when they needed to, but I really appreciate the effort from my kids.
“And, I’d like to congratulate North Carolina A&T, not just on a great game, but also on a great season. They’ve been a tough opponent all year long and have shown a standard of excellence in out league that we are all shooting for.
-2009 MEAC Basketball Tournament: Our Time is Now-