EAST GREENSBORO – The North Carolina A&T women's basketball team has played four home games at Corbett Sports Center thus far this season. They have won two of them by 70-plus points and another by 51. That includes Saturday afternoon's 110-40 win over the Johnson & Wales Wildcats as three Aggies recorded double-doubles.
"I thought we started a little show, but we picked it up," A&T head coach Tarrell Robinson said. "I was disappointed in 11 turnovers. They didn't press. They sat in the zone, and we made some tough errors. We were able to turn it around and only have five turnovers in the second half. Games like this, I told them that it's about execution, limiting our errors and playing together."
Junior Maleia Bracone led the Aggies with 25 points on 7-for-12 shooting from 3-point range. All seven rebounds came on the offensive end, and she had three assists. Graduate center Jazmin Harris added 12 rebounds and a season-high 22 points on 10-for-17 shooting. A&T honored Harris before the game with a commemorative basketball to mark her scoring 1,000 points as a student-athlete. She spent three years with the Charlotte 49ers and has played 35 games for A&T.
The Aggies other center, redshirt freshman Chaniya Clark had 12 rebounds and a career-high 13 points. The other double-double went to junior forward D'Mya Tucker, with 16 points and 11 boards. A&T outrebounded the Wildcats 67-22 and, in the process, secured a whopping 36 offensive rebounds, which resulted in A&T outscoring the Wildcats 37-0 in second-chance points.
"They were the biggest, the strongest, and most dominant inside presence on the floor," Robinson said about Harris and Clark. "It was good to see them do it. Chaniya always seems to be productive in limited minutes. I'm proud of that, and I hope she can continue doing that."
The Aggies led from start to finish, but a confident Johnson & Wales team came to the bench during the game's first media timeout trailing just 10-9 at the 4:51 mark of the first quarter. The Wildcats scored just 11 points the rest of the half.
A&T ended the first quarter on an 18-3 run. The run included two Bracone 3-pointers and three assists from sophomore guard Nahndi Smith who finished with a career-best six helpers. The Aggies had their way on the offensive glass from there. They grabbed 12 offensive rebounds in the second quarter and scored 10 points off those rebounds.
The Aggies also used their glasswork to open the second quarter on a 12-2 run to take a 40-14 lead. They ended the quarter on a 9-1 run to take a 51-20 halftime lead. The Aggies eased from there as they ended the day shooting 49.5 percent from the floor, including 44 percent from 3-point range.
Sophomore Jordyn Dorsey had her second straight solid performance as she finished with 19 points on 7-for-9 shooting and added five rebounds and a career-high six assists. Dorsey has 40 points on 16-for-24 shooting in her last two games. Freshman Taliya Council, making her first collegiate start, added eight points, five rebounds and three assists.
Tee Dorsey led the Wildcats with 16 points. The Aggies will not return to Corbett, the site of their big blowout wins, until Friday, Dec. 10. It will be their first-ever Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) contest as Piedmont neighbor Elon makes the short trip to East Greensboro for a 6 p.m. start.
