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NC A&T 82, Morgan State 64

BALTIMORE, Md., January 10, 2009 – When Fayetteville, N.C., native Ta’Wuana Cook stepped onto North Carolina A&T’s campus she kept hearing two words. Mia Glover.

Cook was essentially replacing Glover as the North Carolina A&T women’s basketball team’s starting point guard after Glover graduated with the Aggies all-time records in assists and points scored in a game.

“Everyone kept telling me I had big shoes to fill,’’ said Cook. “I was just worried about living up to what she did before me.”

On Saturday afternoon, Cook continued to fill out those shoes by becoming the 10th player in program history to record 1,000 points in a career. Points No. 1,000 and 1,003 helped the Aggies secure their 20th regular-season conference win in 22 tries with a 82-64 win over Morgan State at Hill Field House.

Brittanie Taylor-James led the Aggies with 25 points and eight rebounds on 8-for-16 shooting. Amber Bland overcame early foul trouble to add 16 points, six rebounds and five assists. Despite the lopsided score and the fact the Aggies out-shot the Bears 50-33 percent from the floor, the Bears rallied from a 14-point second-half deficit thanks to an extraordinary number of 3-point attempts.

Back-to-back 3-pointers from Morgan State’s Moneshia Davis and Erin Hawkins reduced the Aggies lead to 57-54 with nine minutes to play. The lead was trimmed to as low as two, 59-57, on a Kristina Rosario free throw with 8:11 to play. N.C. A&T stretched its lead back to seven, but a Rosario offensive rebound and put back put the Bears down 65-62 with five minutes to play.

“We are allowing people to put a target on our backs,’’ said N.C. A&T head women’s basketball coach Patricia Cage-Bibbs, whose team was picked to win the MEAC this season. “What we have to do is take that target from off our backs and put it on other people’s back. Let them be the favorite and play to level we needed to beat them. I was pleased to see execute well enough to pull away at the end.”

After Rosario’s layup, Bland spotted up for a 3-pointer to put the Aggies up six. Two Moneshia free throws made it 68-64. The Bears had a chance to get even closer, but Aggies junior Lamona Smalley stepped in and took a charge from Corrin Adams. The Aggies then hit the offensive glass as Bland followed her own miss with a tip-in for a 70-64 Aggies lead with 2:53 to play.

A missed layup from Rosario allowed Cook to earn 1,000th point by doing what she does best on missed shots, sprinting ahead of everyone else on the other end to score on a layup. This time Bland zipped her a pass and Cook finished to give the Aggies an eight-point lead with 2:27 remaining. A minute later, she knocked a three from the corner to put the Bears away.

“Coach Bibbs always encouraged me to just keep shooting,’’ said Cook. “She has always believed in me. “When I released (the shot), it felt good coming out of my hands.”

The Aggies are now just waiting on Taylor-James to reach 1,000 career points to give the Aggies three players on the same team with 1,000 career points joining Bland and Cook. me back and tied the game at 9 on a Taylor jump shot. The Aggies would score the next four points before Sosa would hit his first three of the game to move the Knights to within one. Another Sosa three gave the Knights their first lead of the game eight minutes into the contest.

An Ed Jones layup tied the game at 15, and a Wilson three gave the Aggies a three-point advantage. But the Knights went on a 7-0 run to take the lead for good in the game as they went into the locker room with a 47-39 lead.

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