TOLEDO, Ohio – The North Carolina A&T men's basketball team doesn't plan on dwelling on its 95-62 loss to Toledo at Savage Arena Monday night.
After all, the Christmas Holiday is coming. There is another Mid-American team to face and the Aggies only have two more games to prepare for before conference play starts again. Plus, the Aggies (5-9) just had an off night, while the Rockets (8-4) went to the free throw line 33 times and shot 47.7 percent from the floor.
Senior Bruce Beckford led the Aggies with 20 points, marking the fourth time he reached the 20-point plateau this season.
“We're going to take three or four days off and get ready to play again,” said N.C. A&T head coach Cy Alexander. “We've got four days to get ready for Kent State. We're going to jam about five practices into that time frame and be ready to play. We'll have this game behind us before we play a good Kent State team, USC Upstate and then conference play. So we're going to give them some time to relax before start back up again.”
The Aggies trailed by double figures most of the game, but Beckford tried to keep it close toward the end of the half. Beckford hit a career-high four 3-pointers, one with 4:30 to play in the first half to cut the Rockets lead to 36-29. Redshirt sophomore James Whitaker added to the momentum by scoring in transition to cut the lead to five. Toledo moved its lead back to eight before Beckford hit another three to move N.C. A&T back to within five, 39-34 with 2:25 to play.
But the Rockets ended the half on a 6-0 run to lead 45-34 at the half. The Aggies never got the lead under 10 again. Johnathan Williams led the Rockets with 25 points on 8-for-11 shooting. Three other Rockets scored in double figures including Nathan Boothe (18), Jaelan Sanford (16) and Zach Garber (13).
The Aggies will play Kent State 4 p.m., Wednesday, Dec. 30 at Corbett Sports Center. “I hope the Aggie faithful have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year,” said Alexander. “I hope they come out over the holiday and support us on Dec. 30 against a good Kent State team.”
