March 13, 2009
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WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. - The University of Maryland Eastern Shore (UMES) women's basketball team ended their run for the title today as they fell to the no.1 seed in the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) Tournament, 74-56. North Carolina A&T (NCAT), who finished as the regular season champion, will be making their second consecutive championship game appearance.
"I thought we went out and played hard," said Head Coach Fred Batchelor. "I told them I thought we could win...but there were stretches where they were able to take advantage of some mistakes we made."
UMES scored first on a three by Jasmine Speed (McDonough, Ga.). The Lady Aggies responded by going on a 13-0 run capped off with a jumper by the 2008-09 MEAC Player of the Year, Brittanie Taylor-James.
Amber Cook (Greensboro, N.C.) made a free throw to break the six and a half minute NCAT run, but the Lady Hawks would trail by as much as 15 points before the break.
April McBride (New Rochelle, N.Y.) started a UMES rally, going 4-for-4 from the field to start the second half after not taking a shot for over 20 minutes. She dropped in a three from the baseline just 22 seconds into the half. Speed muscled in a layup and McBride added a jumper and another three to pull the Lady Hawks within four, 31-27 with 17:26 on the clock.
"Coach always told us that basketball is a game of runs," said McBride. "We saw that it was starting to shake them a little bit, so we took that as motivation."
Casey Morton (Mardela Springs, Md.) grabbed her first points of the contest from the free throw line right before Kanzes Battin (Wilmington, Del.) hit a layup to put the Lady Hawks down 35-33 with 16:09 to play.
But UMES could not overtake the Lady Aggies (25-6) who extended their lead from there and took the win.
McBride finished with a team-high 14 points and Morton added 10 of her own to the effort. Speed and Morton ended the contest with a team-high six rebounds.
Ta'Wuana Cook and Lamona Smalley were the NCAT players to reach double-digits in points with 10 each and Jaleesa Sams finished with 10 rebounds.
"I wasn't prepared to give an end of the year speech," said Batchelor. "This year was a special season. It wasn't easy. We had a lot of issues that we were able to get through. The kids stuck together and they grew. They are a much better team today than they were back when we started in October."
