SAVANNAH, Ga. – The North Carolina A&T men's basketball team didn't get its normal solid performance from leading scorer Bruce Beckford, and the Aggies didn't shoot the ball particularly well either.
Yet, they came away with just their third road win in 31 tries with a 62-59 win over Savannah State at Tiger Arena. The win ends the Aggies (6-17, 3-6 MEAC) three-game losing streak. It also marks their first-ever win at Tiger Arena after failing the first three times. A&T also secured its first-ever season sweep of the Tigers (5-16, 1-6 MEAC) since the Tigers joined the MEAC in 2011.
“We won tonight because we got great effort for 40 minutes,” said A&T head coach Cy Alexander, who saw his team shooting 38 percent on Saturday. “Lately, we've given great effort for 32 minutes and that's not enough. Tonight we played hard for 40 minutes and we got an overall team effort.”
The team effort included two players having career nights and one player coming off the bench to score in double figures for the first time in a month. Junior point guard Ahmad Abdullah tied his career high with 17 points on 8-for-9 shooting from the free throw line. He also had four assists and did not turn the ball over in the last 34 minutes of the game.
Sophomore center Steven Burrough added a career-high 15 points on 7-for-7 shooting from the line and 4-for-6 shooting from the field. His night also included five rebounds and five blocks. Redshirt freshman James Whitaker added 11 points off the bench.
“Whitaker was big for us tonight,” said Alexander. “He gave us some offense from that shooting guard position, and we really needed it tonight because our starter Arturs Bremers didn't score.”
As it turned out, the Aggies needed every single point it could get down the stretch. They led 51-41 thanks to a Denzel Keyes baseline drive with 4:53 remaining. The Tigers scored the next five points to move to within five. Burroughs then received an outstanding entry pass into the post from Bremers and scored to push the lead back to seven, 53-46 with 2:31 remaining.
A&T kept its distance from the Tigers over the next 90 seconds as a Keyes free throw gave the Aggies a 58-50 lead with 55 seconds to play. Javaris Jenkins put the Tigers on his back over final minute. He knocked down a deep three to cut the lead to five. After an Aggies turnover, Beckford fouled Jenkins shooting a 3-point shot with 34 seconds remaining.
Beckford's foul sent him to the bench for good with five fouls. Jenkins netted all three free throws to move the Tigers to within two, 58-56. After two Abdullah free throws, Jenkins struck again, hitting a three from the right elbow to cut A&T's lead to one, 60-59 with 22 seconds remaining. But Jenkins would foul Whitaker on the inbounds pass, committing his fifth foul which sent him and his sharpshooting to the bench.
Whitaker made one of two and Burrough blocked a Terel Hall shot to clinch the win for A&T.
“More important to me than Stevie's 15 points were those five blocks,” said Alexander. “Those blocks are able to change things and enhance what we do on the defensive end. I thought he was a little passive in our last game against Coppin State and they were able to score in the paint easily. Tonight, he went after shots and that made a big difference.”
A&T held Savannah State to 34 percent shooting in the second half, and didn't allow the Tigers a second-half point until the 12-minute mark. Jenkins led the Tigers with 11 points. Jamal Norman and Alante Fenner had 10 apiece.
Beckford, who was in foul trouble all game, finished with six points. It ended his streak of consecutive games in double figures at 14. The Aggies step outside of conference on Wednesday to face the Charlotte 49ers at Halton Arena at 7 p.m. They return to conference play Saturday, Feb. 7 to face rival N.C. Central at Corbett Sports Center at 6 p.m.
