EAST GREENSBORO – Hot shooting Delaware gave North Carolina A&T women's basketball its first Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) loss in program history, 69-52, Sunday afternoon inside Corbett Sports Center.
Delaware made 12 3-pointers to shoot 54.5 percent. Meanwhile, A&T missed all 13 of its 3-point attempts in the first half and finished 4-for-26 (.154) for the game.
"We weren't able to get into a rhythm," head coach Tarrell Robinson said. "It wasn't about making shots. Shots will fall if we can get an easy layup and get our confidence. We weren't able to gather a rhythm. We didn't execute. There are other ways to score outside the 3-pointer, and we settled for that."
The loss ends A&T's six-game winning streak, dropping A&T to 11-6 overall and 5-1 in the CAA. The win gives Delaware a 10-6 record, including a 3-2 CAA record. With Drexel's loss to William & Mary, 74-58, Sunday, A&T and Drexel remain tied atop the conference.
Graduate center Jazmin Harris led the team with 12 points, five rebounds and two steals. Sophomore Jordyn Dorsey had 11 points, four rebounds and two assists. D'Mya Tucker scored 10 points with five rebounds and four assists.
After Dorsey gave the Aggies a 2-0 lead six seconds into the game, a first-half theme began to develop for the Blue Hens -- hot 3-point shooting. Delaware scored nine straight points on threes to take a 9-2 lead. The Blue Hens connected on five threes in the first quarter, but the Aggies weathered barrage as Harris scored the quarter's final four points to send A&T into the second trailing 19-16.
Harris scored her sixth consecutive point after a jumper at the 9:23 mark to cut the lead to 19-18, but a Tara Cousins made free throw increased the Blue Hens lead to 20-18. Tucker's jumper tied the game at 20 before the Blue Hens rattled off six straight points to take a 26-20 lead with 5:52 to play in the half.
A Nyah Willis drive from the elbow to score on a layup ended that run before Delaware put on an impressive 3-point run that changed the game. Delaware put together a 17-0 spurt that included four 3-pointers, two by Kharis Idom, to give the Blue Hens a 43-22 with 45 seconds remaining in the first half.
Tucker ended the run by driving baseline and scoring on a layup, but the threes did their damage as the Aggies trailed 43-24 at the half. Delaware went 8-for-13 (.615) from the floor in the second, including 4-for-7 (.571) from three.
Another Delaware three, this one by Rebecca Demeke at the end of the third quarter, sent the Blue Hens into the fourth leading 58-36. But the Aggies would not go down easily.
Maleia Bracone hit her second 3-pointer of the game 10 seconds into the fourth. It started a 9-0 Aggies run that culminated with a Dorsey 3-pointer to cut the lead to 58-45, forcing a Delaware timeout with 7:47 remaining in the game.
Delaware came out of the timeout, threw the ball into Klarke Sconiers, scored, and got fouled on the play. Sconiers completed the 3-point play to spark a 10-0 run that put the game away as Delaware took a 68-45 lead with 3:38 to play.
"We got the game down to 13 points, and I thought we were in good shape. We came out of a timeout and then gave up an and-one. They made another run, and the next thing you know, they're back up to 20," said Robinson, who will try to get his Aggies back on track at home against Stony Brook on Friday at 6 p.m.
