In North Carolina A&T’s first two seasons in the Coastal Athletic Association, the Aggies spent time as the first-place team.
Still, they could not close the deal on a regular-season championship.
But behind a career-high 27 points from senior guard Jordyn Dorsey and a historic night for graduate guard Maleia Bracone, the Aggies defeated William & Mary 77-52 to capture a share of the CAA regular-season championship.
In addition to capturing the title, the Aggies secured the No. 1 seed for next week’s CAA Women’s Basketball Championship Tournament at CareFirst Arena in Washington, DC.
The Aggies are 18-10 overall and 14-3 in the CAA, a game ahead of College Charleston, whom they defeated 71-59 at Corbett on Feb. 7 to secure the tiebreaker advantage.
A win on Saturday against UNC Wilmington at Corbett gives the Aggies the conference regular season title outright. A&T will get a double-bye. Therefore, the Aggies’ first tournament game will be on Friday, March 14, at noon.
“I push them, and I push them, and I push them,” said NCAT head coach Tarrell Robinson, who won his fifth conference regular-season title in 13 seasons at the helm. “There are situations like the prior two years where those results we want don’t happen. And it happened now, and that creates more buy-in. I told them, ‘The monkey’s off our back now. Let’s take it all, starting on Saturday.’”
NCAT captured its 11th regular-season conference title in 43 years as a Division I NCAA varsity program. It is its first as a CAA member. The other 10 came in the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC), which is more MEAC regular-season titles than any other school in history.
“It’s great. It’s very rewarding because we know how hard we’ve worked, the hours we’ve put in, and the lessons we’ve learned,” said Dorsey. “It all feels well worth it, and we are trying to take it up another level when we get to the tournament.”
Dorsey’s career night moved her past Brittanie Taylor-James (2006-09) for eighth on the all-time scoring list. She is three points shy of passing Helena Creamer (1987-91) for seventh on the list.
“Jordyn is a winner,” said Robinson. “The kid is the player of the year.”
She certainly showed up at Corbett to win on Thursday. Dorsey scored 12 first-quarter points to help A&T grab a 27-11 lead after the first quarter. That lead increased to 20 in the second quarter, 31-11, when Dorsey intercepted a Jana Sallman pass and found freshman Rachel Griffin on the break for a layup with 8:44 remaining in the first half.
The Tribe outscored NCAT 10-2 over the next 3 1/2 minutes to cut the Aggies’ advantage to 33-21. William & Mary would get to within 37-26, on a Natalie Fox free throw but never got any closer in the first half. Two Griffin free throws in the waning seconds of the first half gave the Aggies a 41-27 halftime lead.
“They’re a good team,” said Robinson. “They’re well-coached. They’re playing for something – seeding. I knew they would play a lot harder. I knew they would scout us a lot better than when we were back at their place.
It wasn’t a surprise. Everybody makes runs in this league; it’s just how you respond to it. I thought we did a good job of responding, especially with this (Dorsey) young lady on the court.”
A&T maintained a double-digit lead throughout the second half. Two Dorsey free throws pushed the lead to 67-46 with 5:49 remaining in the game. A Chaniya Clark putback and a layup from Dorsey followed those two free throws.
Graduate guard Ajia James put the exclamation point on an incredible night for A&T women’s basketball with a 3-pointer to give A&T a 74-46 lead with 3:15 to play. A&T went 23-for-28 (.821) from the free throw line led by Dorsey’s 9-for-9 showing.
“Aggies know how to win,” said Robinson, a graduate of NCAT. “It ain’t always pretty, but it gets the results. The young women who come in and stay committed to that get to experience being a championship before their four years are up.”
The A&T Department of Athletics has two CAA titles in the last week after the men’s indoor track and field program won the athletics department’s first-ever CAA championship.
Bracone, who is in her fifth year as a collegiate player, experienced her first championship on Thursday. It came on a night where she scored 13 points to leapfrog past 1,500 career points after spending her first two seasons at Presbyterian College.
Almost two weeks ago at UNCW, she became the 17th Aggie to surpass 1,000 points exclusively in an Aggies uniform.
“She is a talented player with a die-hard mentality,” said Robinson about Bracone.
Monet Dance came off the bench to score 16 points for the Tribe, who dropped to 11-17 overall and 8-9 in league play.
Courtesy: North Carolina A&T athletics
