Florida State head women’s basketball coach Sue Semrau was not going to be taken by surprise despite North Carolina A&T’s relative anonymity to the college basketball world.
Therefore, she was not stunned when the 14th-seeded Aggies gave her third-seeded Seminoles a tremendous fight before losing 83-71 in the first round of the WNCAA Tournament Saturday afternoon at the Gwinnett Arena.
N.C. A&T junior point guard Ta’Wuana Cook led all scorers with 19 points. She also had five rebounds and three steals. Junior Lamona Smalley added 14 points and seven rebounds for the Aggies, and three-time first-team all-conference senior Amber Bland scored 13 points, dished out six assists and had eight rebounds. Sophomore Jaleesa Sams contributed with 13 points, six boards and three assists.
“They have two great players,’’ said Semrau about MEAC Player of the Year Brittanie Taylor-James and Bland. “They’re outstanding jump shooters, so I told my team they had to stay out there on the perimeter and guard them closely. If you allow them to get off clean looks both of them can knock down jump shots with regularity.”
Locking up Taylor-James and Bland seemed to be the Seminoles’ plan from the day they arrived in Duluth because neither player is a stranger to the Florida State coaching staff. On Friday, Semrau said she recruited Bland out of Boardman High School in Ohio. FSU associate head coach Cori Close was once an assistant at UC-Santa Barbara, where Taylor-James started her career.
Florida State’s concentration on the two Aggie superstars yielded a combined 6-for-22 shooting performance from Taylor-James and Bland. Fortunately for the Aggies, who finished their season at 26-7, the future looks bright because the underclassmen stepped to the forefront. The same way Semrau was not going to be fooled into believing the Aggies were an automatic win. Sams, Cook and Smalley were not going to be intimidated by Florida State’s stature as the ACC regular-season co-champions.
N.C. A&T trailed by as many as 13 in the first half, but within the first four minutes of the second half, the Seminoles lead was down to eight at 49-41. The Aggies would continue to cut into the lead as Cook took the ball away from FSU’s Angel Gray and turned the steal into a fastbreak layup that trimmed the lead to six. After two FSU free throws, Taylor-James made her first field goal of the game six minutes into the second half by hitting a 3-pointer just in front of press row to cut FSU’s lead to 51-46.
“I have a shooter’s mentality,’’ said Taylor-James. “Anytime you’re in a shooting slump you have to shoot your way out of it. That 3-point shot was a real confidence booster for me. I thought when we cut it to three we had them where we wanted them. But I don’t think we played as well as we could have on defense and they hit some big shots.”
N.C. A&T cut it three on a beautifully executed up and under move by Smalley that was shown on many of the highlight shows Saturday night. But Florida State, who had used its 6-4 duo of Cierra Bravard and Jacinta Monroe to score easy buckets against the smaller Aggies most of the game, turned to their perimeter players to seal the win.
The Seminoles went inside to Monroe for two points. After an Aggies turnover, Alysha Harvin hit a 3-pointer from the corner with 12:22 remaining in the game to push FSU’s lead to eight. On the Seminoles next possession, they went inside again to Bravard for another easy look at the basket and 10-point Seminole lead.
Monroe and Bravard combined to go 9-for-10 from the floor for 22 points. “I don’t think my team was bothered by their size,’’ said N.C. A&T head coach Patricia Cage-Bibbs. “If you look at, we out-rebounded this team. I thought their guards came through and hit some big shots down the stretch to hurt us.”
Despite the Seminoles responding to their run, the Aggies weren’t ready to give a concession speech yet. Sams came out of a media timeout and finished off a 3-point play to cut the Seminoles lead down to seven. FSU’s Tanae Cain-Davis and Bland traded 3-point baskets to put the Aggies down 61-54 with 10:11 to play. But FSU put together a 9-2 run over the next 4 ? minutes, and it capped off by a Harvin steal and layup that gave FSU a 70-56 lead with 5:51 remaining.
The Aggies were not able to get the lead under double figures again as Harvin led the Seminoles with 18 points. Despite the loss, the Aggies walked off to a standing ovation from the many Aggie faithful who made the trip to Georgia. N.C. A&T’s performance was not overlooked by their opponent either.
“Nothing surprised me about North Carolina A&T,’’ said Davis-Cain, who hit four 3-pointers. “We knew they were a great team coming in. We saw the impressive way they won their conference, so we knew this wasn’t going to be easy.”