GREENSBORO – The North Carolina A&T men's basketball team found themselves down by 10 points to one of the best teams in the conference in Howard University, with 8 ½ minutes remaining. The nation's leading scorer, Bison guard James Daniel III, was hitting so many free throws it almost seemed unfair he was allowed to keep his eyes open. Plus, it appeared to be an off night for the Aggies top two scorers in sophomore Sam Hunt and senior Bruce Beckford.
But these are not your November Aggies. N.C. A&T fought back to win an exciting 66-63 contest over the Bison at Corbett Sports Center Saturday evening. It was both teams' Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference opener. It was the Aggies (3-7, 1-0 MEAC) third straight win after losing their first seven by an average of 22.4 points.
Beckford would get it going as he finished with 16 points and 10 rebounds for his 11th career double-double. Hunt and senior point guard Ahmad Abdullah would finish with 13 apiece. Junior Khary Doby came off the bench to score 13 points on 6-for-9 shooting. Daniel finished with 28 points for the Bison on 15-for-15 shooting from the free throw line. The Bison (5-3, 0-1 MEAC) had their five-game winning streak snapped.
“I thought our young men showed a lot of resilience,” said N.C. A&T head coach Cy Alexander. “They had to fight back in the second half three times after being down eight points or better. Every time we got close, they would take it right back up. But I told them with about six minutes to go that we had one more run in us. And I think we proved that.”
The Bison did lead 47-37 five minutes into the second half. A 10-1 Aggies run capped off by a Bruce Beckford jumper cut that lead to one, 48-37, with 10:32 to play. But two minutes later the Bison were up 10 again as Daniel hit a 3-pointer to make it 57-47. But with an enthusiastic crowd behind them, the Aggies again tore down the Bison's lead. Hunt would dribble his way into traffic and score on a difficult runner in the lane to tie the game at 59 with 4:19 remaining.
N.C. A&T would eventually take its first lead of the second half as a Hunt 3-pointer rattled out. A souring Joshea Singleton grabbed the ball at his highest point on the ricochet and slammed it through the basket to the delight of the Corbett crowd as the Aggies took a 63-61 lead with 1:04 to play. Howard tied the game on two more Daniel free throws. Beckford tried to give the Aggies the lead on a three but missed long to give the Bison possession back with 22 seconds to play.
The Bison then went to their go-to-guy in Daniel but his 3-point attempt rimmed out as Beckford chased down the loose ball and was fouled Solomon Mangham. Beckford hit one out of two free throws to give the Aggies a 64-63 lead. Daniel again tried to get the win for the Bison with another 3-point attempt but missed again to seal the win for the Aggies, who are all of a sudden are the hottest team in the MEAC. Daniel labored to get his 28 by going 5-for-17 from the floor. No other Bison scored in double figures.
“We knew he was going to score, but we wanted to prevent anyone else from doing anything over the top,” said Alexander about defending Daniel. “I want to commend our players for doing that.”
N.C. A&T will be looking to further its transformation after a slow start to the season as Maryland Eastern Shore visits Corbett on Monday night at 7:30. If the Aggies win it will be their first 2-0 conference start since the 2010-11 season.
