SAVANNAH, Ga. – Savannah State's dribble penetration caused the North Carolina A&T men's basketball team fits Saturday night as the Tigers knocked the Aggies off a perch they have been enjoying for a month with a 75-68 win at Tiger Arena.
Thanks to wins over Howard and Maryland Eastern Shore in December, the Aggies stood alone atop the standings. Even when Hampton defeated Morgan State earlier in the week to move to 2-0, the Aggies still had a chance to move into sole possession of first while producing their first 3-0 start since the 1996-97 season.
But the Tigers (5-8, 1-1 MEAC) had other plans. SSU was aggressive going to the basket to score layups or get fouled. So much so they shot 53 percent from the floor in the second half, and they attempted three times as many free throws (37) as N.C. A&T (12).
Sam Hunt led the Aggies with 19 points. Bruce Beckford, who leads the team in scoring, returned to the lineup after missing two games with an injury scored three points. Khary Doby tried to help fill the void while his teammate gets back into form as he finished 13 points on 5-for-6 shooting. Doby is now 12-for-20 from the floor in his last two games. Senior point guard Ahmad Abdullah finished with 13 points and a career-high nine assists.
“We didn't do a very good job of guarding the basketball and that's what we were afraid of,” said N.C. A&T coach Cy Alexander. “We are having a hard time guarding dribble penetration and it rose up and bit us tonight. But we knew this is what Savannah wanted to do.”
But it was not all drives to the paint for SSU. The Tigers 3-point shooting is what open things up offensively in the first half. Led by one of their three top graduate transfers Christopher Martin, the Tigers turned what was a one point lead, 20-19, into a nine-point. Martin hit three 3-pointers during a 13-4 run that gave the Tigers a 33-24 lead with 3:28 to play in the first half Alexander said Martin's accurate shooting forced him to come out of the Aggies traditional matchup zone look into a man-to-man.
N.C. A&T (5-12, 2-1) did fight back with a 7-0 run led by two Abdullah field goals to move to within two, 33-31, with 40 seconds remaining in the half. But Martin's hot shooting had already had an effect even though the Aggies were still in a position to win. A Hunt 3-pointer gave the Aggies their first lead in 17 minutes of game clock at 41-39 with 14:27 to play in the game. After Khalen Pinkett tied it, Hunt hit another three to put the Aggies ahead three.
The Aggies final lead of the night would come on a Denzel Keyes turnaround jumper with 11:58 remaining to put the Aggies ahead 46-45. From there the Tigers would take advantage of free throw shooting. A 9-0 run gave the Tigers a 54-46 lead. Keyes cut it to five on a 3-pointer from the deep corner. But a Dexter McClanahan 3-pointer made it a nine-point game, 58-49.
Troyce Mannassa got underneath the basket minutes later to extend the lead to 12 before Martin returned to hit another three to put the Tigers in front 68-54 with 2:40 remaining in the game. The Tigers would 16 free throws over the final 13 minutes of the game. The Aggies attempted 12 for the game.
“Their perimeter shooting created a situation where we had to go man and right now we're not very good at guarding the ball from the perimeter,” said Alexander. “We've got to get our guys back to mentally to go up and play a good South Carolina State team. South Carolina State is a team that likes to push the ball, so we've got to be able to get back in transition defensively.”
The Aggies face the Bulldogs Monday night at 7:30 at S-H-M Memorial Center.
