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An outburst of emotion came over North Carolina A&T’s head women’s basketball coach Tarrell Robinson during his postgame press conference following the Aggies’ 65-54 Coastal Athletic Association (CAA) win over the UNC Wilmington Seahawks Saturday afternoon at Corbett Sports Center.
The impetus for the emotion started during the Senior Day activities before the game, and the full-blown emotion came when discussing senior guard Jordyn Dorsey after the game.
Playing her final regular-season game at Corbett, Dorsey scored 23 points, grabbed five rebounds, dished out four assists and posted two steals to help the Aggies improve to 19-10 overall and 15-3 in the CAA to wrap up the outright CAA regular-season championship. Within those numbers, she went 6-for-6 from the free throw line and has now made her last 22 free throw attempts.
A&T heads into this week as the No. 1 seed for the 2025 CAA Women’s Basketball Championship Tournament at CareFirst Arena in Washington, D.C. The Aggies will play the winner between eighth-seeded Hofstra and ninth-seeded William & Mary at noon on Friday, March 14.
“We are where we are because of Jordyn’s work ethic,” said Robinson as he started to fight back tears. “She’s going to be missed.” After a pause, he added: “She’s locked in. You know you have one of those once-in-a-lifetime kids who steps on campus, does everything you ask, and doesn’t complain.”
Dorsey moved past Helena Creamer on Saturday to rank seventh on the Aggies all-time scoring list. She needs two assists to move past Ta’Wuana “Tweet” Cook as the Aggies all-time leader in assists. She needs eight assists to become the first player in program history with 400 or more assists.
But the numbers only begin to tell Dorsey’s story. She graduated early from A&T with a degree in biology. She has a 3.73 GPA and plans to become a dentist someday.
“She could have jumped in the transfer portal. Didn’t,” said Robinson as the emotion finally wholly overcame him. “She got what she came here for, at least one thing. She’s got about three more things she wants, that I know she wants, even though she doesn’t talk about it. She’s an awesome person and basketball player.”
Dorsey is a contender for CAA player of the year. She will also try to lead the A&T program to its sixth NCAA appearance by attempting to win the program’s first CAA tournament title. She certainly has A&T in tournament form.
After scoring a career-high 27 Thursday night in the win over William & Mary, Dorsey got the Aggies going with seven first-quarter points to help the Aggies take a 19-10 lead after the first quarter. Locke closed out the Seahawks with a nine-point fourth quarter. Locke opened the fourth quarter with two driving layups. The second one resulted in an and-1 to give the Aggies a 51-43 lead with 7 ½ minutes remaining in the game. Over the next three minutes, the Seahawks cut A&T’s lead to five, 53-48.
Two Ajia James free throws and two more Dorsey free throws pushed the Aggies lead back to nine before a Kate Hollifield 3-pointer cut UNCW’s deficit to six, 57-51, with two minutes remaining. But again, Locke put the ball on the floor and went to the basket to put A&T ahead by eight with 57.4 seconds to play.
A&T went 7-for-8 from the free throw line over the final 50 seconds, including two from Locke, to clinch the outright CAA regular-season title. Locke finished with 18 points and seven rebounds.
“She never quits,” said Robinson, conceding he will also get emotional on Locke’s Senior Day. “She doesn’t do everything perfectly. Ya’ll saw the layup she threw up by the shot clock. But how can you get mad at it? The kid is trying to win. She is trying to compete. She is going to be another one of those great ones. She always steps up when we need her, and she is one of those X factors.”
Aggie graduate guard Maleia Bracone had 14 points, five assists and two steals on 5-for-6 shooting. James had 10 rebounds, and junior Chaniya Clark added nine as the Aggies out-rebounded UNCW 42-32.
Taylor Henderson led the Seahawks with 15 points and seven rebounds as they dropped to 14-17 overall and 8-10 in league play. They will open the tournament as the 10th seed against No. 7 seed Delaware on Thursday.
A&T also celebrated Reiven Douglas, Daija James and Nahndi Smith before the game on Senior Day.
“We want to make sure we send our seniors out the right beside the business of wanting to be outright champions,” said Robinson. “I told them before the game, win or lose, we’re No. 1. Win or lose, y’all have two days off. But we must make sure our seniors go out the right way.”
