How do you even begin to unpack what went down Friday night at NC A&T’s Corbett Sports Center?
In one of the wildest Northeastern women’s basketball games in recent memory, the Huskies thought they had lost it at the end of regulation before tying the game, then thought they had won it at the end of the first overtime period before their buzzer-beating shot was wiped off the board. After 55 minutes of basketball, it was a clutch three by redshirt senior center Chaniya Clark that finally separated the two sides, lifting the Aggies to an 89-86 win in triple overtime.
First, though, we need to rewind two hours and 45 minutes earlier, before any of the chaos that was to come had unfolded in Greensboro.
The game started out with a barrage of scoring, as both teams shot 50% or better from the field in the first quarter, and the Huskies did so despite going 0-for-4 from three. Sophomore forward Justice Tramble netted Northeastern’s first five points of the night, and was a force in the post all game despite Clark being three inches taller than her.
To Clark’s credit, she also made an early impact despite being triple-teamed by the Huskies, scoring six of NC A&T’s first 12 points. The Aggies’ leading scorer, “Baby Shaq” had terrorized Northeastern in her last two visits to the Cabot Center, scoring 19 points in 2024 and 17 points on Valentine’s Day last year. But Clark was out with an injury when these teams met at Cabot last month, a double-overtime thriller that NC A&T took by one point.
The Huskies trailed 23-18 after the first frame, but things really started to click for the visitors on both ends of the floor in the second quarter. Northeastern made a trio of three-pointers in the first two minutes, two of them coming from sophomore guard María Sánchez Pitarch. It was the Valencia native’s first game as a Husky with multiple threes, after going all of her freshman year without making a deep shot. (It was a bit surreal to hear the Aggies’ play-by-play announcer exclaim “you gotta know where Sánchez Pitarch is at all times” after she canned the second one!)
That triple put Northeastern up four, which would be the largest lead they would hold all night, before Clark responded with a three of her own off a pick-and-pop on the following possession. Just over a minute later, “Baby Shaq” would drill another deep shot off the same play, knotting the score up at 29.
At that point, NC A&T was shooting 6-for-9 from beyond the arc, but the Aggies proceeded to go cold from deep, missing their next six three-pointers. The Huskies, meanwhile, used transition play to power their offense, scoring five of their last seven points of the half on the fast break. At halftime, the visitors led 13-0 in fast-break points.
Northeastern also led NC A&T 20-12 in paint points at the half, and Tramble was a big reason why. The sophomore had grabbed seven rebounds in just nine minutes of action, and was not afraid to bump bodies in a game where the Huskies brought a lot of physicality as a whole. Northeastern may have gotten a few favorable calls on some of those battles, but it was still great to see the Huskies bring the intensity against a team with the Aggies’ size.
The third quarter was much more difficult on the offensive end for both sides, with the teams combining to shoot 8-for-29 (28%) from the floor. Three of the five made field goals for NC A&T, though, were from deep, and that allowed them to outscore Northeastern 14-7 in the frame. One of those threes came from junior forward Paris Locke, who by the end of the quarter had nine points, seven rebounds, and nine assists.
The Huskies’ free-throw shooting in the frame did not help matters, as they went 1-for-5 from the foul line. Northeastern would finish the night 15-for-27 (56%) on foul shots, well below their team goal of shooting 80% from the stripe.
After Locke scored to open the fourth quarter and put the Aggies up seven, their largest lead of the game, sophomore guard Morgan Matthews hit a three from the corner to put the Huskies back within four. Two possessions later, Tramble collected the board on a missed triple from Matthews and put it in from under the basket. Then sophomore forward Taylor Holohan pulled up from the left wing and drilled a three-pointer to complete the 8-0 run.
NC A&T countered with a pair of threes, the latter of which looked like it was well off as it left Locke’s hands before banking in off the backboard. It was a lucky shot, but it was the kind of night the junior was having. Two and a half minutes of game time later, she drove the ball and then kicked it out to sophomore forward Elliott Jessup, who nailed the three to put the Aggies up 63-60. It was Locke’s tenth assist of the night, and she was just three rebounds away from a triple-double.
She would get those three boards in the span of 90 seconds, the tenth being her biggest of the night up to that point, off a missed jumper by Sánchez Pitarch with NC A&T leading 66-65. But after the Aggies split a pair of free-throw attempts, the Huskies had the ball down two with 30 seconds to go, and sophomore guard Camryn Collins put up a jumper from the short corner that would have tied the game.
The shot was no good, but it bounced out of bounds off an NC A&T player, and gave Northeastern a second chance on the possession. Off the baseline inbounds, graduate student guard Nariyah Simmons was able to get it right back to Collins, who was cutting to the rim and finished a layup through contact. The Huskies’ leading scorer on the season was able to complete the three-point play from the free-throw line and give her team the one-point advantage.
This is when things started to get unhinged.
The Aggies advanced the ball up into their half of the court, with 20 seconds to go and the shot clock off. But they looked lost as soon as the ball was inbounded, and NC A&T head coach Tarrell Robinson appeared disgusted as he called a timeout and lectured his players about the play they were supposed to have run.
The Aggies then had an inbounds under their basket, and got it in right to Locke, who put the ball up and off the underside of the backboard. She got her own rebound, though, and put another shot up, missing that bunny as well. The ball came to Holohan, and she was swarmed by two white jerseys, who were able to force a tie-up.
NC A&T had the arrow and was putting in the ball from the same spot on the baseline as the previous inbounds. This time, though, Locke intentionally threw it off the backside of Matthews, and the ball rolled towards the corner. With four seconds left, Clark picked it up as she was standing an inch away from the sideline, smothered on defense by Tramble with seemingly no room to operate. “Baby Shaq” looked more like “Baby Jokić” as she threw up a two-handed shot from over her head and somehow banked it in, sending the home crowd into a frenzy.
But there were still 2.2 seconds left on the clock, and Northeastern had a timeout left that they could use to advance the ball into their end. The inbounder in front of the Huskies’ bench, junior guard Yirsy Quéliz, waited a few seconds for someone to get open, until she found Collins on the wing closest to her. The Foxboro native put up a one-legged shot from just inside the arc and banked it in herself to send the game to overtime.
In the previous meeting back in early January at Cabot, the Aggies won by outscoring Northeastern 3-2 in the double overtime period. Overtime got off to a similarly low-scoring start at Corbett Friday night. Locke found Jessup wide open under the rim to beat the shot clock a minute and a half in for the first points of the extra session. Quéliz immediately looked to go coast to coast and drew the foul on the drive, making both free throws to tie the game at 72.
On the next possession, a foul was called away from the play on Tramble, putting NC A&T into the bonus and sending Clark to the line, where she sank the first free throw. The only problem was that the call on Tramble was actually the Huskies’ fourth foul committed since the start of the fourth quarter, so the Aggies were still one whistle away from the bonus situation. The officials were informed of this by the scorer’s table and thus wiped Clark’s foul shot off the board. NC A&T still had possession, but was unable to score, a huge break for Northeastern.
About a minute of game time later, Tramble got the rebound of a Quéliz shot and put it up and in, giving the Huskies their first lead of overtime. The visitors proceeded to get a stop on defense, and on the next possession, Tramble was able to drive to the rim and draw the foul. Unfortunately, the free-throw struggles on the night continued, as she missed both shots from the line, allowing the Aggies to get the ball back and tie the game.
The Huskies had the ball with about 30 seconds left and just a one-second differential between the game clock and shot clock, so they could likely hold for the final attempt of the period if they wanted to and at worst head into a second overtime. Collins tried to play the hero again with 10 seconds on the game clock, putting a wild shot off the side of the backboard, but Tramble was able to track down the board before Northeastern head coach Priscilla Edwards-Lloyd called a timeout.
On the ensuing inbounds, Simmons got the ball into Collins, who had cut into the paint and would have been wide open for an easy score. But just as the ball was thrown in, Collins slipped, and passed it out to Tramble before hitting the back of her head hard on the floor. As the Huskies’ star player lay in pain on the hardwood, a scrap for the rock ensured, and Simmons put up a shot close to the rim that was cleanly blocked.
The ball came right to Matthews near the left elbow, who threw up a jump shot just before the clock expired and sank it… or so she and her teammates thought.
The shot was ruled a good basket by the official on the floor, but remember that there was a small differential between the game and shot clocks, and that Simmons’ attempt did not hit the rim. As a result, the shot clock never reset, and while Matthews did get the ball off before the game clock expired, it was ruled a shot clock violation upon review.
This meant that NC A&T now had possession with 0.5 seconds left, with a chance for their own buzzer beater. The Aggies advanced the ball and got the inbounds in to Clark, who chucked a wild one-handed halfcourt shot over a triple team at the buzzer that was just off to the left, although it was probably a little too close for comfort for the Huskies after seeing what she had done at the end of regulation.
The second overtime period saw just five points each from both sides. NC A&T took the lead twice, but Tramble did an excellent job against Clark in the post to score layups on back-to-back possessions that kept Northeastern in it. Neither team could score on their final chances of the period with the game knotted up at 79. A Jessup three-pointer attempt, from a spot on the floor where she had already made a couple of clutch treys, bounced off the backboard with four seconds to go, and sent the Huskies to their first triple overtime period in more than 16 years.
The Aggies got out to a four-point lead in the third overtime, with Locke scoring the first seven points of the period for the home team. Matthews had a couple of clutch shots, nailing an open three from the right corner to cut the deficit to one, and later finishing on a layup with 35 seconds to go to tie the game at 86.
NC A&T now had the ball with a six-second differential between the shot and game clock. The Aggies let some time wind down before Locke started to make her drive. Everyone certainly thought she was looking to make it nine straight points for her team in the triple overtime period before she kicked to Clark, who launched a shot over Tramble and found nothing but net.
With 10 seconds left and down 89-86, the Huskies advanced the ball and needed a deep shot to fall to send it to a fourth overtime period. Quéliz, who had drained two wild threes to send the previous meeting between these two sides to overtime, tried to replicate that magic from the left wing. It was a tough look as she was falling to the hardwood, and it nearly went down but was just a bit too strong. Simmons was able to track down the board and backed it out to the right wing, where she put up one last prayer for Northeastern. On a night like this, it wasn’t just wishful thinking to believe that it had a chance of going in, but it clanged off the rim as time expired and the crowd at Corbett erupted.
Clark triumphantly raised her fists into the air as the buzzer sounded, but it felt like a relatively muted celebration from the Aggies players overall, probably because they were so winded. Locke ended the night having logged 51 minutes, with freshman guard Jamyia Lindsey playing 50 and graduate student guard D’Mya Tucker notching 49. Locke’s triple-double was the first ever recorded in program history.
The minutes were spread a little bit more evenly for Northeastern, with no Husky playing more than 44 on the night. In 39 minutes of action, Tramble finished with 18 points and 21 rebounds, tying a record for most boards in a game by a Northeastern player.
With ESPN’s SportsCenter in town for a live broadcast from the floor of the arena earlier in the day, perhaps it was destiny that we got a few “Top 10”-worthy plays from this contest. The Huskies grinded and battled the whole night, but that is likely of little consolation after losing in a grueling fashion like this. Northeastern is now 0-6 in the all-time series against NC A&T.
The Huskies have to find a way to quickly recover from this one, as they are back in action Sunday afternoon at Elon. With Friday night’s loss, Northeastern dropped back into the bottom two of the conference standings, which would mean having to play in the first round game of the CAA tournament. The Huskies currently sit in second-to-last place, although they are just a half-game back of both Hampton and Hofstra.
Another concern is the health of Collins, who did not return to the game after that fall where she hit her head. In a good sign, she was back on the bench a few minutes into the second overtime period, holding an ice pack to the back of her head for the rest of the night.
Northeastern’s road trip continues as they take on Elon Sunday afternoon at 1 p.m. WRBB’s next women’s basketball broadcast will be Sunday, Mar. 1, as the Huskies host Hampton at Cabot. Sammy Glassman will have the call of the 1 p.m. tip.
Jordan Walsh is a fifth-year student at Northeastern who has been with WRBB Sports since 2021, primarily covering men’s and women’s basketball. You can read all of his articles for WRBB here and find him on Twitter/X here.