NEW ORLEANS - Two disturbing trends have revealed themselves over the North Carolina A&T men's basketball team's last three games. A lack of rebounding and too many turnovers led to a 78-54 loss to Tulane Wednesday night at Fogelman Arena.
Tavarus Alston led the Aggies with 18 points and Nic Simpson added 13 points. But the Aggies shot just 38.9 percent from the floor and turned the ball over 18 times.
"I'm very disappointed to look at the box score and see us out-rebounded 47-31 with 18 turnovers,'' said N.C. A&T head coach Jerry Eaves who has seen his Aggies out-rebounded by an average of 11 rebounds over the last three games. "We turned it over 34 times the other night. We're just not going to be successful playing this way."
The Green Wave jumped on the Aggies early by taking an 18-6 lead in the first 8 ½ minutes of the game. The lead stayed near double figures over the next eight minutes of the game before the Aggies offense began to click.
After a Kevin Sims 3-pointer gave the Green Wave a 29-19 lead, Alston found a cutting Robert Johnson going to the basket for a layup. A Simpson layup on the break and 3-pointer by Alston pulled the Aggies to within three at 29-26 with 2:16 remaining in the first half.
Johnny Mayhane responded with a three after a Green Wave timeout. Mayhane's 3-pointer sparked a 10-3 run by the Green Wave. The drive was capped off when Kendall Timmons followed a Mayhane miss at the buzzer to give Tulane 39-29 halftime lead.
Tulane hit four of its first five shots to open the second half to take a 51-33 lead. The lead would grow to 21 and the Aggies never got much closer the rest of the way. Kris Richard led the Green Wave with 19 points.
"Right now our decision making is awful,'' said Eaves. "The energy we bring into games is awful. The only way we're going to turn this around is with hard. I know we've been on the road a lot, but if we don't play with energy at home, we'll lose there too.
The Aggies have one more non-conference tune-up before the MEAC schedule goes into full swing. The Aggies play at home on January 5 when they face Carson Newman at 7 p.m. It will be the Aggies first home game since Nov. 2 against Middle Tennessee State. Their last eight games have been on the road.
