AKRON, Ohio-The North Carolina A&T men's basketball team zipped out to a quick start against Akron, but struggled to score in the second half. The Aggies' lack of consistency in scoring resulted in a 79-52 loss to the Zips Wednesday night.
"I think we played extremely hard for about 25 minutes," said N.C. A&T head coach Jerry Eaves. "This road trip, we've had 10-minute droughts in every game that have truly cost us. We can compete at this level on the road, and we do, but we go in this stretch where we miss every free throw and every layup.
"We just have to stop that because we got the shots we wanted, we missed point blank layups and free throws. When we stop doing that, there's no question we can play with those guys, there's no question about it."
After shooting 35 percent in the first half, the Aggies (4-9) only managed to shoot 21 percent (5-for-24) in the second.
Akron took a 14-point advantage with 13:11 left on the clock, at 53-39. Junior Jean Louisme snapped the Aggies drought with a shot from 3-point range to make it 53-42. The Zips responded with their own 3-pointer by Quincy Diggs to go back up by 14 points.
But then senior guard Nic Simpson, who led the Aggies with 13 points from the bench, was fouled by Diggs, and nailed all three free throws to cut it to an 11-point game at 56-45 with 11:28 left. Akron put the game away by taking a 24-point lead on an 18-4 run to make it 74-50 with 3:46 minutes remaining.
"Five-for-24 hurts, it really hurts," Eaves said. "We just can't continue to do that."
Meanwhile, the Zips (7-5) shot 48 percent in the second half to help extend the Aggies' losing streak to six. A pair of field goals by Zeke Marshall, who had 20 for the Zips, accounted for Akron's final points in the game as the time ran off the clock.
"That's the only thing this trip is showing us is that we haven't been able to score the ball consistently for 40 minutes, that's all," Eaves said.
The Aggies led by as much as 17-9 with 11:24 left in the first half on a 3-pointer by Underwood, taking advantage of a slow start by Akron, before the Zips took a 19-17 lead on a 3-pointer by McClanahan with 8:45 left on the clock.
The Aggies fought back to tie the game, and took a 27-24 lead with six minutes left on a 3-pointer from senior Marc Hill, who was twisting as he came down from the shot. Hill added to the Aggies advantage with a layup, to make it a 29-24 game with 5:45 left in the contest.
But the A&T lead didn't last long, as the Zips hit a pair of free throws, and tied the game at 29-29 with a three-pointer from Walsh. Akron padded their lead by going on an 11-3 run to close out the first half with a 40-32 advantage.
"At halftime, it's like Hawaii, we're hanging tough, no question," Eaves said. "But we hit those stretches where we just don't put the ball in the basket. It's not that we can't compete, it's just that we'll hit a stretch where we can't score. It's not that we stop competing, we stop scoring."
The Aggies finish their six-game road trip with a 7 p.m., contest against Ohio University in Athens, Ohio on Friday, Dec. 23. The Aggies will bus back to Greensboro following the game, and enjoy the Christmas holiday at home, before hitting the road again to take on Houston on Dec. 28 at 3 p.m.
