Women's Basketball 2/24/2008 5:00:00 AM MEAC Media Relations

North Carolina A&T Runs Past Winston-Salem State Lady Rams, 80-41

Amber Bland led the LadyAggies (20-5) with 20 points, six rebounds and four assists. Lamona Smalley added 14 points and nine rebounds as the Aggies reached the 20-win plateau for just the third time in school history and the first time since the 1990-91 season with a 80-41 win over Winston-Salem State at the Lawrence Joel Coliseum Annex. The Aggies other 20-win season came during 1987-88.

The Lady Aggies jumped out to an early lead and never relinquished control of the contest as they used a 50 percent shooting performance from the field in the first half to open up a lead as great as 24 points during the contest’s first 20 minutes of play.

NC A&T sprinted ahead to a 10-0 lead over the course of the first 3:01 of play as the Aggies hit four consecutive field goals and a free throw before missing their first shot of the contest.

A pair of WSSU field goals would cut into the Aggie lead for only a moment as North Carolina A&T used the respite to regroup their offense en route to posting a 26-12 run over the next 10 minutes of play as they closed the half with a 44-20 lead.

Despite a team-high 14 points from WSSU freshman forward Jalessa Byrd the Lady Rams would never mount a challenge to the NC A&T lead as the Aggies’ Amber Bland started second half action off with a deep 22-foot three-pointer as NC A&T increased their lead to 27 points.

NC A&T’s lead would continue to grow as they led the Lady Rams by as many as 44 points with 4:14 remaining in the contest as Brittane Neely’s lay-up gave the Lady Aggies their largest lead of the evening.

The evening would be a difficult one for the Lady Rams as WSSU would shoot only 28.6 percent from the field as Winston-Salem State hit only 10 of their 35 field goals, only three of which would come in the second half.

Conversely, the Lady Aggies turned in a 30-of-62 shooting performance from the field in the contest as NC A&T hit 48.4 percent of their field goal attempts.

Brittanie Taylor-James and Nancy Rembert each tallied 11 points in the victory.

WSSU’s Jalesa Byrd’s career-high 14 points led the Lady Rams as she would be the only Lady Ram to score in double-figures in the loss.

With the defeat, WSSU falls to 2-22 on the season while North Carolina A&T improves to a MEAC-leading 20-5 overall.