GREENSBORO – North Carolina A&T and Mercer played a gritty, intense, down-to-the-wire women's basketball contest Saturday afternoon that disappointingly ended with senior Maleia Bracone's last-second 3-pointer rimming out at the buzzer, leading to a 55-52 Mercer win at Corbett Sports Center.
"I'm extremely proud of my group. I thought they competed from the beginning to the end," said A&T head coach Tarrell Robinson. "It's a shame that when you're keeping score, somebody has to win, and somebody has to lose. If the ball bounced a different way, there could have been a different result. Mercer is a program that has won championships similar to ours and has been to the NCAA tournament. They have a seasoned coach, and they played that way on the road. We know it's hard to win in Corbett, so hats off to them for getting the victory."
The Aggies went into the fourth quarter with a 40-35 lead. The Bears opened the final period with a Briana Peguero 3-pointer and a Deja Williams three to take the lead, and the fun and excitement would go from there. Mercer built its lead to as many as five in the fourth, 45-40, before senior forward D'Mya Tucker connected with sophomore center Chaniya Clark on a bounce pass that led to a layup.
A Clark rebound then led to a transition opportunity for the Aggies that ended with junior point guard Jordhn Dorsey finding Tucker spotted up in the corner for a 3-pointer that she netted to tie the game at 45 with 6:02 remaining in the game. The Aggies would tie the game one last time when Tucker bullied her way to the basket for a layup, evening the game at 47.
Mercer scored the next five points, taking a 52-47 lead Stacie Jones layup with 35 seconds to play. After an A&T timeout, the Aggies looked to their leader in 3-pointers made, Bracone, who found room in the corner and took a pass from Dorsey to splash a three to cut the Bears lead to 52-50 with 29 seconds remaining.
"It was not a lot of pressure but a little bit of pressure with the time running down, but I just had that confidence in my teammates that there is going to be some type of positive outcome," said Bracone.
After a Williams free throw pushed the Bears lead to three, the Aggies turned their other veteran guard in Dorsey as she drove to the basket, missed the layup, but quickly followed her miss to cut Mercer's lead to 53-52 with 14.9 seconds remaining. A&T was forced to foul with the shot clock off, leading to two made free throws from Ashlee Locke.
The two makes led to Bracone's near miss at the buzzer to send the Aggies to 3-5 on the season as they lost their fourth straight. Mercer improved to 4-8 on the season.
"There are some things we need to clean up, but again, they're a good team," said Robinson. "They almost upset Georgia Tech in the last game. Their record doesn't show it, but they know what they're doing in terms of the program and a coach that has been there for 14 years."
Dorsey led the Aggies with 14 points, five rebounds and three assists on 6-for-11 shooting. Tucker added 13 and Bracone had 11. The Aggies held a 14-6 lead toward the end of the first quarter on two Dorsey free throws. A 3-pointer from Hanna Knoll helped the Bears close the first quarter on a 7-2 run to send the game into the second quarter with A&T leading 16-13.
A&T maintained the lead throughout the second quarter until a Peguero layup gave the Bears their first lead of the game, 26-25, with 1:33 remaining in the first half. But a Bracone steal and layup secured the lead at halftime for the Aggies at 27-26.
Aspen Johnson came off the bench to score 15 points for the Bears. After exams, the Aggies hit the road to face Stetson (December 19) and Bethune-Cookman (December 20) at Stetson's Holiday Hoop Classic in DeLand, Fla. The Aggies will return home on Saturday, December 30, when they face Averett at 2 p.m.
