EAST GREENSBORO – North Carolina A&T women's basketball head coach Tarrell Robinson reached another milestone Friday night in Corbett Sports Center.
It wasn't easy.
Robinson, the all-time winningest coach in program history, won his 200th career game with a Aggies 67-63 overtime win over the Northeastern Huskies Friday night at Corbett Sports Center. He became only the third basketball coach -- men or women -- in N.C. A&T history to reach 200 wins joining men's basketball coaching legends Cal Irvin and Don Corbett.
"I feel good because we were able to overcome a lot of adversity in this game," Robinson said. "The fact that it's 200 is a great milestone. I'm blessed to be part of this university, my alma mater. We've got a really good group. What happened tonight is because of the type of people they are, overcoming adversity."
The Aggies led by as many as 16 in the second half and had a 15-point lead, 50-35, with seven minutes remaining in the game before the Huskies made a furious comeback thanks to the 3-point shooting of guards Derin Erdogan and Jamiya Braxton.
The duo combined to hit six 3-pointers over six minutes to outscore the Aggies 21-5. Braxton hit three straight threes to give the Huskies a 56-55 lead with 51 seconds remaining in the game. Junior Maleia Bracone hit one of two free throws to send the game into overtime, tied at 56.
Jazmin Harris scored the first two points in overtime at the free throw line. But the hot shooting from the Huskie guards continued. Erdogan hit another 3-pointer to give Northeastern a 59-58 lead with 3:32 remaining.
However, Erdogan, the Huskies leading scorer, fouled out with 3:01 remaining. She went to the bench with 20 points and seven assists on 4-for-7 shooting from 3-point range. Thirty seconds later, despite being surrounded, sophomore N.C. A&T guard Jordyn Dorsey found a wide-open Nyah Willis for a three she netted to give the Aggies a 61-59 advantage.
After a missed Northeastern layup, Willis went into the lane as the shot clock ticked down to zero, only to turn and find an open D'Mya Tucker for a jumper at the shot-clock buzzer that swished, giving the Aggies a four-point lead with 1:40 remaining in OT.
With 35 seconds remaining, Dorsey hit two free throws to make it a 65-59 game, but the crazy was not over yet. First, a Halle Idowu putback made it a four-point game. Then, a steal and layup by Northeastern's Ariana Webb cut the Aggies lead to 65-63 with 17 seconds remaining. Tucker finally put the Huskies away with two free throws with 13 seconds to play.
"I think we let up and started to relax once we built the lead," said Willis. "We knew we wanted to win, but we also knew we needed to focus on the little things, which we stopped doing. That's why they got back into the game, so going into overtime, we just needed to relax and get back to the way we were playing earlier."
Willis led the Aggies with 15 points off the bench, shooting 5-for-7 from the floor. The win keeps N.C. A&T tied at the top of the Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) standings with Drexel at 5-0. The Aggies have won six straight to improve to 11-5. Northeastern falls to 7-8 overall and 2-2 in the conference.
Jazmin Harris also came off the bench to contribute 12 points and nine rebounds. Talia Davis scored 11 points, shooting 3-for-6 from the floor, including 3-for-3 from the 3-point range.
N.C. A&T shot 1-for-18 in the first quarter and trailed 11-4. But the Aggies shot 6-for-12 in the second quarter to take a 28-23 halftime lead. They shot 8-for-16 in the third quarter to build the big lead.
Braxton added 19 points for the Huskies, scoring 12 points in the fourth quarter. Tucker added 10 points, four steals and four rebounds for the Aggies. Bracone finished with nine points, six rebounds and three steals. Laila Acox posted a career-high four steals.
