WASHINGTON, D.C. – The North Carolina A&T men's basketball team is not opportunistic. Unfortunately the Aggies inability to take advantage of chances given to them to win games spilled over into conference play Saturday afternoon.
Despite holding one of the top scoring guards in the conference, James Daniel III, to one field goal and four points, the Aggies were defeated 54-47 at Burr Gymnasium. Bruce Beckford led the Aggies (1-8, 0-1 MEAC) with 19 points and five rebounds.
James Miller led the Bison (5-4, 1-0 MEAC) with 17 points. James Carlton added 12 points and 12 rebounds as the Bison outrebounded the Aggies 38-29.
“The story of our season is that we don't know how to win,” said A&T head coach Cy Alexander. “It's frustrating because we're in every ballgame. But in the last 10 minutes of games we don't have the experience or the leadership to win.”
The Aggies were able to get the ball inside to 6-foot-5 guard James Whitaker for a turnaround jumper that gave A&T a 38-36 lead with 12:33 remaining. A&T went nearly six minutes without another point. In the meantime, ripped off back-to-back layups off Aggie miscues to take a 44-38 lead with 6:53 to play. The Bison grew their lead to 48-40 on two James Miller free throws.
A&T answered with two Beckford free throws to close to within six with 4:12 to play. Ewing, who was 1-for-10 from the floor and 0-for-6 from 3-point range, missed from the top of the key to give the Aggies an opportunity to get closer. But the rebound slipped out of the hands of sophomore Steven Burrough and into the hands of Tyler Stone for a Howard layup.
Burrough did cut Howard's lead to 50-44 with two free throws with 3:14 remaining. Miller's turnover on Howard's next possession gave the Aggies the ball back and Stone's foul gave sophomore Trey Brown a two-shot opportunity at the line. Brown missed both free throws, which was followed by a missed free throw from Whitaker, which all but ended the Aggies quest to start 1-0 in the MEAC.
“It's a team effort for us. It's just not one person, ” said Alexander. “It's a different person every time. We have a chance to hit an open shot, we don't hit it. We have a chance to make a layup, we don't make it. We needed both of those (Brown) free throws and we didn't get it.”
The Aggies shot below 40 percent for the fourth straight game. Their 6-for-31 shooting performance from 3-point range was not helpful. Their dry spell in the second half was matched by a six-minute scoring drought in the first half that allowed Howard to take a 22-13 lead with 5:25 remaining. Leading 28-20 with 45 seconds remaining in the first half, the Bison had a chance to go ahead by double-figures at halftime.
But a turnover led to an Arturs Bremers 3-pointer to send the Aggies into the locker room down 28-23.
“We're going to keep teaching and preaching and hope they get it through experience,” said Alexander. “Our guards are really young and they panic and try to do things they shouldn't be doing. That usually means we end up with the wrong person taking a clutch shot we really need.”
The Aggies are in action again Monday night when they travel to Princess Anne, Md., to face another conference foe, Maryland Eastern Shore at 7:30 p.m.
