GREENSBORO - Youth can be unpredictable. Fortunately, for the North Carolina A&T men's basketball team, the unpredictability has been a good thing.
For the second straight game, an unsung hero stepped to the forefront to lead the Aggies to a win. On Saturday, it was sophomore DaMetrius Upchruch.
Monday night, it was freshman reserve point guard Jeremy Underwood. The Washington, D.C., native finished with a season-high 16 points, four assists, no turnovers and three steals to lead the Aggies to a 74-63 win over conference-leader Hampton at Corbett Sports Center.
The win puts the Aggies (12-14, 7-5) back into the conference race, two games behind the Pirates and Bethune-Cookman.
"Jeremy Underwood stepped up big," said N.C. A&T head coach Jerry Eaves. "We needed something in the second half because we weren't finishing strong. Jeremy really gave us the lift that we needed to do this because we're just so young. We have to learn that we are the better team from beginning to finish. I give Jeremy credit for giving us the emotion we needed."
N.C. A&T is getting a lot of passion from its bench. On Saturday, the Aggies outscored Howard's bench 24-2. Monday night, Hampton's bench was outscored 32-4. Eaves extended his bench to help with rebounding and keeping players fresh, so the Aggies can hold on to second-half leads.
It has worked thus far. For the second straight game, the Aggies took a lead late and were able to sustain it. Thomas Coleman had another double-double with 14 points and 13 rebounds, and the Aggies out-rebounded the Pirates 45-35.
"One win doesn't change who we are," said Eaves. "We're still a team playing with one junior, one senior and the rest are freshmen and sophomores. But I believe as long as we are out-rebounding our opponents, we've got a chance to win."
Once Hampton's Kwame Morgan cooled, the Aggies opportunity to win became a lot better. Morgan, who had 36 points against the Aggies earlier this season, finished with 27 points on seven 3-pointers on Monday. But after hitting 7 of his first 9 threes, he missed his last three. Standout forward Darrion Pellum was just 1-for-8 from 3-point range.
"They're going to hit shots," said Eaves. "But we kept them off the free throw line, and we kept them perimeter. That's our game plan. If they go out and hit 50 percent of their 3-point shots they're going to beat us. But if they miss shots, and we protect the interior and rebound the ball, we'll have a chance to win even with a player playing that well."
Morgan's final 3-pointer came at the 9:50 mark of the second half. It gave the Pirates a 50-47 lead. The Aggies went on a 10-0 run, hitting seven free throws during the run, to take a seven-point lead with five minutes to play.
Two Charles Funches free throws cut the lead down to five before the Aggies implored their knockout punches. Coleman's follow-up dunk gave N.C. A&T a 61-52 lead. After a Hampton free throw, Adrian Powell's runner gave the Aggies a 10-point lead.
Underwood made it official with a three that put the Aggies ahead 66-53 with two minutes remaining. The Pirates dropped to 19-6 overall and 9-3 in the conference. The Aggies return to conference action on Saturday when they play on the road against S.C. State.
