MORAGA, Calif. – St. Mary's College (SMC) somehow orchestrated a 32-point turnaround Friday night against the North Carolina A&T women's basketball team, rallying to beat the Aggies 73-65 in A&T's first game of the St. Mary's Thanksgiving Classic played at SMC's UCU Pavilion. The Aggies saw their three-game winning streak end, falling to 3-2 overall. Meanwhile, the Gaels halted their two-game losing streak to improve to 3-3 on the season.
Reigning Coastal Athletic Association (CAA) player of the week, Chaniya Clark had 12 points and seven rebounds on 5-for-7 shooting. Senior D'Mya Tucker also had 12 points and seven rebounds as she shot 5-for-6 from the free throw line.
Friday became a story of two very different halves. The Aggies defense kept the Gaels perimeter-oriented in the first half, with only eight of SMC's 27 first-half shots coming in the paint. A&T's power in the paint in the first quarter came from off the bench in the form of junior Laila Acox. Acox had eight first-quarter points on 4-for-4 shooting.
Six of her first-quarter points came in the paint. The first quarter ended with California native Nyah Willis finding Acox open for a jump shot that gave A&T a 15-11 lead going into the second quarter. Acox's bucket also helped the Aggies end the first quarter on a 10-0 run.
Acox finished with 11 points in 11 minutes on 5-for-5 shooting. The Aggies extended their spurt to 12 straight points to open the second as Jordyn Dorsey found Clark underneath for an easy layup that extended A&T's lead. Zeryhia Aokuso snapped the Aggies 12-0 run with a 3-pointer before the senior guard Maleia Bracone responded with a three to give the Aggies a 20-14 lead with eight minutes to play in the first half.
After Bracone's three, the Aggies defense returned to its stifling ways, holding the Gaels to one field goal over the next 6 ½ minutes as the Aggies extended their lead to 11, 28-17, on a completed and-one from junior Talia Davis with two minutes remaining.
Hannah Rapp finally got a bucket in the paint for the Gaels, but A&T responded with four straight points from Dorsey to take their biggest lead of the game, 32-19, with 50 seconds remaining in the first half. However, a Tayla Dalton 3-pointer at the first-half buzzer sent the Gaels into the locker room trailing by 10, perhaps giving the Gaels the second-half momentum it needed to pull away from the Aggies.
A&T shot 15-for-26 (.577), outscored the Gaels 14-6 in the paint and out-rebounded them 21-9 over the first 20 minutes of action. But those fortunes switched in the second half, where the Gaels went 15-for-26 from the floor, outscored A&T 20-12 in the paint and had a 15-13 advantage on the glass. That one of the Aggies veteran players, Bracone, fouled out with 6:50 remaining in the game complicated matters.
But over the first two minutes of the second half, the Aggies still looked in command as Dorsey, who had 11 points, seven rebounds and five assists, hit a 3-pointer to put the Aggies ahead 38-27. But the reversal began to happen from there. The Gaels scored the next seven points to cut the lead to four.
Clark ended the run with a feed from Dorsey to score on a layup to give the Aggies a 40-34 lead. Ali Bamberger hit a three to get the Gaels to within three before Tucker's 3-pointer put the Aggies ahead by six again with 4:09 remaining in the third quarter. But the Gaels outscored A&T 11-2 over the final four minutes of the third to take a 48-45 lead into the final quarter.
The Gaels opened the fourth on a 16-0 run over the first four minutes to take a 64-45 lead, completing the 32-point turnaround. Nine points during the run came off A&T turnovers as the Gaels ended the game with a sizeable 33-11 advantage in points off turnovers.
A&T kept fighting, however, as a Tucker floater in the lane cut the Gaels' lead to seven, 69-62, with 1:10 to play. But the Aggies never got any closer as Bamberger led the Gaels by scoring 14 of her game-high 22 points in the second half.
