North Carolina A&T managed to once again turn a visiting arena into an home court advantage for itself. And once again the raucous crowd wearing Blue and Gold helped the Lady Aggies make more history with a 79-70 win over Charlotte in the second round of the WNIT Sunday afternoon at Halton Arena.
Freshman Amber Calvin was 7-for-12 from the floor and finished with a game-high 24 points. Senior Ta'Wuana Cook added 19 points, and sophomore Crystal Murdaugh finished with 10 points and seven rebounds.
"This win is great for our program. It's great for our athletics department and it's great for our university,'' said Aggies head coach Patricia Cage-Bibbs. "We want to keep making history because if we keep making history that means we're continuing to win. We're not satisfied. We want to keep going."
The Lady Aggies will play Miami Thursday night at 7 p.m.from the BankUnited Center in Coral Gables, Fla. Miami was a 77-64 winner over Florida on Sunday.
"We have a lot of confidence right now because we believe we can go out and play well against any level of competition,'' said Murdaugh.
In the last two games the Lady Aggies have knocked off teams from the ACC and Atlantic 10. They also have won 14 straight games over in-state competition, including the last two against Charlotte. On Sunday, the Aggies got off to another hot start with Cook and Calvin knocking down 3-pointers to propel the Lady Aggies to a 35-32 lead at the half.
The Lady Aggies took their biggest lead of the game with a 11:41 remaining. Cook banked in a 3-pointer from the top of the key to put the Lady Aggies ahead 59-48. But unlike the Lady Aggies win over Wake Forest on Thursday when they were never tested, the 49ers rallied to challenge the Lady Aggies stronghold over the game.
An 8-0 49ers run ended when Kendra Holmes crossed her way over into the lane and found a wide open Shannon McCallum underneath the basket for a layup that cut the Lady Aggies lead to 69-67 with 2:06 to play.
"We didn't get rattled because we enjoy being the underdogs,'' said Calvin. "We had no reason to lose our composure when they started coming back. We lost a big lead, but we didn't let that have an effect on us."
After a 30-second timeout, Calvin dribbled her way into the lane with the shot clock running down and connected on a jump shot that put the Lady Aggies up four with 1:39 remaining. Junior Jaleesa Sams put the game away with a drive to the basket that resulted in a made layup and a foul. Sams' free throw put the Aggies in front 76-70 with 35 seconds remaining.
"At this stage in postseason you've got to bring your all,'' said Bibbs. "We've done a lot of things right in these last two games. We know we have to come out with a lot intensity and make other teams match our intensity. That's how you win in the postseason."
The Lady Aggies are now one of only 16 teams still playing in the WNIT. The Aggies played at the BankUnited Center in 2005, and lost to the Hurricanes 104-65. This time, the Lady Aggies will have momentum from two memorable wins coming with them along with the ability to turn a visiting arena into a Dawg Pound.
"It's not tough playing on the road,'' said Calvin, who along with her Lady Aggie teammates have played 23 road games this season. "We've been doing it all year. But of course we're going to need our crowd. They have to come with us."