WASHINGTON, D.C. – Fighting for the double-bye at the 2024 Coastal Athletic Association (CAA) Women's Basketball Championship Tournament over an 18-game stretch is worth it. It is the least path of resistance to earning a conference championship and an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament.
But the double-bye can have a negative side effect. Rust. The North Carolina A&T Aggies, the No. 4 seed at the CAA tournament, dusted off some of their early rust from having not competed over the past six days to defeat 13th-seeded Hofstra, 55-40 in a quarterfinal matchup at the Entertainment & Sports Arena on Friday. As a result, the Aggies improved to 20-10 overall and will get the tournament's top seed, the Stony Brook Seawolves, 2 p.m., Saturday at the Entertainment & Sports Arena. Hofstra sees its season end at 11-21.
By advancing to the semifinals, the Aggies earned their first postseason win since leaving the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) after the 2020-21 season. A&T's 20-win season marks the program's 12th all-time and sixth under 12-year head coach Tarrell Robinson. He ties Cal Irvin and Don Corbett for the most 20-win seasons at A&T – men's or women's basketball.
Chaniya Clark also tried to chase a little history on Friday. The 6-foot-4 redshirt sophomore center finished with 11 points and 19 rebounds, the most rebounds ever grabbed by an A&T women's basketball player in a conference tournament game. She secured her seventh double-double of the season and the ninth of her career. She was four rebounds shy of breaking the CAA single-game tournament and the A&T single-game record, both still standing at 22.
A&T Sports Hall of Famer Malveata Johnson had 22 rebounds on Feb. 5, 2001, and she grabbed 19 against Hampton on Feb. 26, 2001, marking the last time an Aggie had 19 or more rebounds in a single game.
For a half, Clark's tenaciousness on the boards kept A&T afloat. Seven of Clark's rebounds came in the first half as first-team All-CAA guard Jordyn had to sit with foul trouble. Hofstra withstood an early A&T run to take a 13-12 lead at the end of the first quarter. The Pride extended its lead to 20-14 on a Tionna Baker layup with three minutes remaining in the half.
Hofstra maintained a six-point lead at the half, 24-18, thanks to another Baker layup. In holding the Aggies to a season-low 18 first-half points, the Pride forced the Aggies into shooting just 2-for-13 in the second quarter.
"Hofstra did a heckuva job speeding us up," said Robinson. "We were missing reads. The ball was getting stuck on one side of the floor. That's a heckuva team. I don't know how they finished as a 13th seed, but our problems were because of them in the first half. So, we had to settle down. We were playing too fast and trying to make quick decisions, but that's what good defensive teams do to you. We also had to turn up defensively to create easy opportunities for us."
The Aggies returned the favor in the third quarter, holding the Pride to 2-for-13 shooting. Dorsey returned to the lineup, and the Aggies torched the place from the floor. Dorsey lobbed a pass down to junior forward Laila Acox, who scored on the play to erase Hofstra's halftime lead, tying the game at 29-29 with 1:48 remaining in the third quarter.
A&T took the lead for good as senior guard D'Mya Tucker missed a layup in transition, but fellow senior guard Maleia Bracone cleaned up the miss with a putback. After a Hofstra free throw, Acox found Clark in the post for a score, sending the Aggies into the fourth quarter leading 33-30.
Dorsey got the party started in the fourth with a spin move in the lane before junior forward Talia Davis netted a three. This was followed by a Dorsey three, punctuated by a Bracone 3-pointer, leading to the Pride calling a timeout while trailing 41-32 three minutes into the fourth. Hofstra did come out of the timeout and scored, but Bracone splashed another 3-pointer and then converted an and-1 to give the Aggies a 47-34 lead with 5 ½ minutes to play.
"We made sure we came out with second and third effort," said Dorsey about A&T's second-half performance. "We came ready to finish the game better than how we started it. We picked up our pace, our defense, and we made sure we gave 110 percent on both ends of the floor."
Stony Brook will go into Friday's game 26-3 overall. The Seawolves beat A&T 76-62 in Stony Brook, NY on March 3. Sherese Pittman had 30 points. A&T and Stony Brook are only in their second year in the CAA, but both have succeeded early. A&T is 25-11 as a CAA member, and Stony Brook is 27-9, including this season's regular-season title.
"We're excited about the opportunity," said Robinson. "Stony Brook is the best team in our league right now until somebody beats them. We didn't feel like we played our best basketball up there. Our team always says the only team that has beaten us is us. When we're playing the right way, we give ourselves a chance to win, and that's what we are going to do tomorrow."
