GREENSBORO – Rarely does a loss result in as much of a confidence builder as North Carolina A&T's Wednesday evening at Corbett Sports Center. The men's basketball started the game without its top two leading scorers and saw their third-leading scorer injured before halftime.
Yet the Aggies were one better shot selection away from beating the preseason No. 2 team from the Mid-American Conference. Graduate forward Ede Egharevba scored a season-high 15 points in a 61-60 loss to Kent State. Senior guard Ahmad Abdullah added 11 points and four assists.
“I thought we played hard and gave good effort tonight,” said Alexander. “We had some young men get an opportunity to show they can give us quality minutes coming down the stretch. I think it shows we're going to be okay come conference time if we can get healthy.”
The Aggies (5-10) played without preseason All-MEAC forward Bruce Beckford who is on pace to lead the team in scoring and rebounding for the third straight year. They also played without redshirt sophomore Sam Hunt who is averaging 18.8 points in six games at Corbett. Graduate guard Joshea Singleton, who had 14 first-half points, left the game with 2 ½ minutes remaining in the first half.
Yet the Aggies led 60-59 on two Ahmad Abdullah free throws with 1:18 remaining in the game. The Golden Flashes had two cracks at regaining the lead, but Khaliq Spicer missed a layup and Kellon Thomas rimmed out, returning possession to the Aggies on an Egharevba rebound with 58.9 seconds remaining. Alexander wanted a drive to the basket on the possession with perhaps an opportunity to get to the free throw line with the Aggies in the double bonus. Instead as the shot clock ran down the Aggies got a rushed 3-pointer from Egharevba that fell short.
The Golden Flashes (8-4) took advantage as Thomas dribbled his way into the lane and scored on a short jumper to help Kent State take a 61-60 lead with 18 seconds remaining. Abdullah tried to win the game on a runner but his attempt came up short.
“We've got to learn the type of shots we need to take in late-game situations,” said Alexander. “I thought Ede played a really, really good game, but he took a bad shot. I hope he can build on his overall performance as we get our starters healthy. If my math is right, we were missing 39 points with Bruce, Sam and Joshea being out. So we need to get healthy.”
Thomas led the Golden Flashes with 14 points. The Aggies still have a few more days remaining to get healthy before traveling to Savannah State to face the Tigers on Jan. 9. In the meantime, they have a Jan. 5 game at USC Upstate at 7 p.m.
