Box Score

NORFOLK, Va. — The North Carolina A&T women's basketball team outscored Norfolk State 26-7 over the last 7:57 of the game to post a 97-65 Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference win over the Spartans on Thursday night at Echols Hall.

A&T (23-6, 15-1 MEAC) will be the No. 1 seed in next week's MEAC Tournament that runs from Tuesday, March 10 to Saturday, March 14 in Winston-Salem, N.C. The Lady Aggies have a first-round bye and will play the winner of the No. 8 Howard vs. No. 9 Bethune-Cookman game at 12:30 p.m. on Wednesday. NSU (1-26, 1-15) will be the 11th seed and will play No. 6 Hampton (13-5, 9-7) at 4 p.m. on Tuesday.

The game was close in the first half, with NSU leading by as many as seven points, 22-15, after a 3-pointer by Raychele Payne (Newport News, Va.) with 10:07 left in the opening period. But A&T slowly chipped away at the lead and tied things up at 22-all after a pair of free throws by Brittanie Taylor-James with 7:58 left. The teams traded baskets over the next several minutes and the Lady Aggies took a 45-40 lead into halftime.

In the second half, the Spartans got as close at four, 53-49, on layup by senior night honoree Sasha Wilson (West Columbia, S.C.) with 15:33 left in the game. But the Lady Aggies turned up the defensive pressure and limited the Spartans just 16 points the rest of the way.

Taylor-James scored a game-high 30 points on 9-of-21 shooting from the field, including 4-of-8 from 3-point range. Ta'Wuanna Cook followed with 23 points, while Reisha Bullock had 12 and Nakia DeBlanc had 10.

For NSU, Marquilla Evans (Portsmouth, Va.) scored a career-high 28 points, 24 in the first half, on 8-on-13 shooting from the floor and 4-of-7 from beyond the arc. Payne contributed 13 points and five assists and Danelle Tate (Stafford, Va.) had 11 points and three steals. As a team, NSU shot season-highs from the field (54.8 percent; 23-of-42) and from 3-point range (53.8; 7-of-13).

For more information on the 2009 MEAC Basketball Tournament, log on to www.meachoops.com.