ORANGEBURG, SC—The South Carolina State Lady Bulldogs fell short of its second-straight league win falling to top-ranked North Carolina A&T 90-61 at Smith-Hammond-Middleton Memorial Center Monday.
Senior Amber Bland led the Lady Aggies with 23 points and five rebounds, while Brittany Taylor-James added 12 points and nine rebounds and Lamona Salley had a double-double with 11 points and 12 rebounds in the victory.
SC State was led by senior forward/center Marie Reid with 16 points and eight rebounds, while MEAC Rookie of the Week Shontavious Wylie tossed in 13 in the loss.
The first-half was all North Carolina A&T sparking a 23-7 run to take a 22 point lead, 31-9 with 4:18 left in the half. A 3-pointer by Amber Bland along with a pair of free-throws by Lavon Woods gave the Lady Aggies a 39-13 advantage with 0:43 seconds left.
Lamona Smalley's layup with 0:09 seconds closed out the half with North Carolina A&T leading by 28, 41-13.
A layup by Amber Bland gave North Carolina A&T their biggest lead of the night 43, 74-31 with 9:06 left in the game. SC State sparked a 25-10 rally cutting the Aggie lead to 26, 82-56 on a layup by Brijan Turner.
The would be as close as The Lady Bulldogs would get a Brittane Neely layup with 0:37 seconds left gave North Carolina A&T a 30 point lead, 89-59 and a victory.
North Carolina A&T improved to 13-5 overall, and 6-0 in the MEAC, while South Carolina State dropped to 4-13 overall, 1-5 in the league.
Jaleesa Smalley tossed in 13 and Ta 'Wuana Cook added 11 in the victory for The Lady Aggies, while Raina Chambers chipped in 12 in the loss for The Lady Bulldogs.
South Carolina State will return to action on Saturday when they travel to the sunshine state to take on Bethune-Cookman in a 2:00 p.m. contest.
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