GREENSBORO - The North Carolina A&T men's basketball team kept flirting with coming close to upsetting the No. 1 team in the MEAC. Then Reggie Holmes ended all the teasing.
Holmes scored 11 points over the last seven minutes of Monday's game to lead Morgan State to a 74-65 win at Corbett Sports Center. Holmes finished the game with 26 points on 4-for-9 shooting from 3-point range. Kevin Thompson added 10 points and 20 rebounds.
Tavarus Alston led the Aggies with 23 points, and Thomas Coleman had 11 points and eight rebounds.
"I thought we were about to hold them like we do everyone else - in the low 60's," said N.C. A&T head coach Jerry Eaves. "I thought we could win with the game in the 60's. But they did...and certainly Holmes did hit some big shots to get them in the 70's. We played excellent defense, we just didn't score the ball consistently."
A minute into the second half, The Aggies trailed by nine thanks to a Holmes 3-pointer. Four minutes later Alston would start a trend that became frustrating throughout the second half for the Aggies.
On three different occasions, the Aggies trailed by just three in the second half. But the Aggies could not grab the lead. On one of those occasions, Robert Johnson pulled the Aggies to within three with 13:37 remaining on a jump shot just inside the 3-point arc. But 3-pointers by Troy Smith and DeWayne Jackson was followed by a breakaway dunk by Jackson that gave the Bears a 54-42 lead with 11:32 remaining.
The Aggies got back to within six at 63-57 on a Dwane Joshua 3-pointer. Holmes answered by staring down his defender before pulling up for a three that put the Bears back up by nine. Nic Simpson made it 66-60 with a three from the corner with 1:38 to play, only to have Holmes go baseline to put the Bears ahead by eight with 52 seconds to play.
"We never had a breakthrough moment,'' said Alston. "We could never get enough momentum to get the lead. For some reason we could never get that run going."
The Aggies return home Saturday to play Delaware State at 4 p.m., before playing an ESPNU game against Maryland-Eastern Shore at 7 p.m.
