NEWARK, Del. – The North Carolina A&T women's basketball team is no longer in contention for a share of the regular-season Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) title after a 79-75 overtime loss to the Delaware Blue Hens Thursday afternoon at the Bob Carpenter Center. The Aggies have lost their last two on the road, dropping to 17-11 overall and 11-6 in the CAA. Delaware has won two straight, swept the season series from A&T and improved to 16-12 overall and 9-8 in the league.
The Aggies find themselves in a three-way tie for third place with William & Mary and Stony Brook. A&T is in a fierce battle for one of the top-4 coveted seeds at the CAA Women's Basketball Championship Tournament, March 8-12, in Towson, Md. If the Aggies earned a top-4 spot, they would need to win only three games to win the title instead of four.
The Aggies trail second-place Towson (12-5) and Northeastern by a game. Meanwhile, Drexel has clinched at least a share of the regular-season title. The Dragons are guaranteed a top-4 spot in the tournament, leaving five teams fighting over three double-bye positions. A&T's final game is Saturday at Drexel, with a 3 p.m. tip-off.
A&T and Delaware had an 11 a.m. start on Thursday, with the Aggies having a chance to play for a share of a CAA regular-season title on Saturday with a win. The Aggies seemed headed in that direction as they opened the fourth quarter with a 58-45 lead. Seventy-seven seconds into the fourth, that lead grew to 16 on a Jordyn Dorsey layup. But over the next 5 ½ minutes, the Blue Hens outscored the Aggies 15-6 to get to within four, 64-60, on a Makayla Pippin layup.
Nyah Willis responded quickly with a layup to give the Aggies a six-point lead with 2:45 remaining. But back-to-back threes by the Blue Hens, the first by Tara Cousins and the second by Kharis Idom, tied the game at 66 with 1:35 to play. A minute later, a D'Mya Tucker free throw gave the Aggies a 67-66 lead. Pippin kept the back-and-forth going with a layup that put the Blue Hens ahead.
A&T answered by turning to clutch-shooting Jazmin Harris, who has hit huge late-second buckets for A&T over her two-year career in Aggieland. She came up big again with a layup to put A&T ahead 69-68 with eight seconds to play. But A&T junior guard Maleia Bracone fouled Klarke Sconiers trying to score to send Sconiers to the line. Sconiers made one of two free throws to send the game into overtime tied at 69.
A minute into overtime, A&T took a 73-71 lead on a Dorsey layup. Delaware scored the next four points before Dorsey struck again with a jumper to tie the game at 75 with 58 seconds remaining in OT. But Dorsey got called for a foul 15 seconds later, sending Cousins to the line for two shots. She made one, giving possession back to A&T.
But a Dorsey turnover gave the Blue Hens possession again. It led to Cousins making one of two free throws again for a 77-75 lead with nine seconds remaining. A&T called a timeout to set up a play that ended with Dorsey taking a 3-pointer that missed the mark, leading to two Jewel Smalls free throws to clinch the win.
Dorsey led the way with 20 points and five rebounds on 8-for-15 shooting and 4-for-8 shooting from three. Harris and Bracone also scored in double figures with 11 and 10, respectively. Sconiers led the Blue Hens with 20.
