GREENSBORO, N.C. – The visiting North Carolina Tar Heels women suffocated the Aggies women on nearly every possession, resulting in an 85-50 victory Thursday night at Corbett Sports Center.
Playing against the 14th-ranked Tar Heels this early in the season gives the young Aggies a chance to gauge their performance as it prepares for CAA play.
UNC’s senior guard Indya Nivar and freshman guard Nyla Brooks led North Carolina with 14 points each. They contributed heavily to UNC’s 48.1 field goal percentage.
On the opposing side, Chaniya Clark and Anaya Karriem scored 14 and 11 for A&T. N.C. A&T head coach Tarrell Robinson acknowledged the reality of the skill gap between the two teams.
“I’m subbing in a kid who was just in high school, who wasn’t an all-American, who didn’t play on the top AAU circuits … (UNC coach) Courtney (Banghart) had McDonald’s all-American’s coming off the bench,” Robinson said.
The lack of experience for N.C. A&T became obvious as UNC applied full court pressure from tipoff and forced 26 turnovers. Aggies graduate guard Jordan Brown committed eight of those turnovers.
Banghart intentionally strategizes to make opposing teams’ possessions difficult.
“We don’t want people to get comfortable … we have the depth to put a lot of pressure on people and wear on them over and over and over,” Banghart said.
A positive area for N.C. A&T though, was the support received from fans. Although the game was a blowout, Nivar was still aware of the Aggie Pride that rang throughout Corbett, calling the atmosphere
“…just electric, you can tell that they love their team. We definitely hear it on the floor … you can kind of feel the pressure.”
Each time the Aggies scored, the building erupted with applause at the Aggies’ efforts, despite the deficit. Coach Robinson wasn’t immediately pleased though. Instead, he left fans with a call to action.
“Come when we not playing them … there’s not that much of a different brand of basketball,” he said. “They knock down shots, they execute a little bit more. We’re getting there; we’ll be doing those same things around conference time.”
The Aggies now travel to face another in-state opponent, North Carolina Central. Tipoff is on Dec. 2 at 6:30p.m. at McDougald-McLendon Arena in Durham.
