ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – North Carolina A&T's offense did find some success during the first day of the New Mexico Thanksgiving Tournament Friday evening at WisePies Arena. But somehow Duquesne found a way to score against the normally tough Aggies defense over the final 13 minutes as the Dukes defeated the Aggies 81-67.
Graduate center Aprill McRae led the Aggies points and eight rebounds on 5-for-111 shooting. Sophomore Kala Green added 13 points and seven assist as she connected on six of her 11 field goal attempts while Whitney Martin came off the bench to score 11 on 5-for-7 shooting.
“I thought we had contributions from a lot of people off the bench. But I thought the third quarter, if you watch our games and stats, that's where we're losing,” said N.C. A&T head coach Tarrell Robinson. “We have to find a way to pick that up, and I think we will.”
The Aggies (0-4), in search of win No. 1, led 48-44 with 3:47 remaining in the third quarter. Over the next eight minutes the Dukes outscored the Aggies 26-11 and shot 9-for-12 from the floor to take a 70-59 lead with 6:04 to play in the game.
The Dukes (4-1) used the momentum to go on an additional 7-0 run to take a 77-59 lead with 3:11 remaining. When McRae scored in the post with 2:27 remaining, it was the Aggies first field goal in nearly four minutes. N.C. A&T's late-game misfortunes came in a game where the first 26 minutes showed tremendous steps in the right direction.
For the first time this season the Aggies had more assists (16) than turnovers (15). Their 15 turnovers were eight fewer than their previous season-low of 23 at Campbell. Also, for the first time this season N.C. A&T had a higher field goal percentage than their opponent.
“Going into this game we talked about cutting down on our possessions in terms of making the most out of every possession and finding good shots,” said Robinson. “I thought we did that. The other thing is when you're playing good defense it creates offense, so we got a lot of transition points in the first half. a comeback. If we find a way to do in the third and fourth quarters what we did in the first and second quarters, we'll be okay.”
N.C. A&T used its stellar defense and wise offensive possessions to continually fight back against the Dukes. The Dukes led 12-6 in the first quarter before a Quenswayla Story jumper put the Aggies ahead 17-15 toward the end of the first.
Duquesne sprinted ahead again 30-22 in the second before jumpers by Green and Martin put the Aggies to within four. After two additional points by the Dukes, Martin who has been out all season, again sparked another N.C. A&T run with a jumper followed by two free throws apiece from Dana Brown and McRae to tie the game. McRae then gave the Aggies the lead at 34-32 with 1:51 remaining in the first half with a layup. A Brown free throw to end the half gave the Aggies a 37-34 halftime lead, which was also their biggest lead of the half.
The Aggies will face Southern Utah, 70-48 losers to New Mexico Friday night, Saturday at 4 p.m. (EST), at WisePies Arena. “We came up here to win the tournament,” said Robinson. “Obviously losing today we can't, but we're still working on trying to get us a win. So we'll go out and try to do our best against Southern Utah.”
