GREENSBORO – North Carolina A&T and North Carolina Central spent many years in two different conferences and NCAA levels, so sweeping NCCU was impossible for the Aggies to do. But when the Eagles returned to the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference in 2009-10, it still looked pretty difficult to sweep NCCU.
Not anymore. For the first time since the 1978-79 season when the two schools were in the MEAC together for the first time, the Aggies earned a season sweep of the Eagles by winning 93-87 Thursday night at Corbett Sports Center.
It marked the first time since 1986 that the Eagles were defeated in Corbett. It was also the first time in six tries that the Aggies defeated NCCU at Corbett since the Eagles returned to the MEAC.
N.C. A&T improved to 10-21 overall and 7-9 in the MEAC. The Aggies will enter next week's MEAC tournament as the No 6 seed. They will open the tournament on Monday against No. 11 Coppin State. A time has not been announced. The winner will play No. 3 S.C. State Thursday night at 6. The Coppin State Eagles defeated the Aggies in Baltimore on Jan. 27. N.C. A&T lost at S.C. State on Jan. 11.
“A wise man once told me you need to take it one game at a time,” said N.C. A&T interim head coach Jay Joyner said about the upcoming tournament. “We can't play on Saturday until we take care of business on Monday. We've got to focus in on each opponent. That's what it is going to take to win it.”
N.C. A&T appears to be going into the tournament at the right time. Its top player seems to finally be getting healthy after sustaining an ankle injury just after the New Year. Beckford came into the Florida A&M game on Feb. 27 shooting just 28 percent in conference play. But over the past three games he is a combined 19-for-36 and has scored in double figures in all three of those games including Thursday's 20-point, 10-rebound performance against the Eagles. It was also Beckford's second straight double-double as he was 8-for-12 from the floor.
Hunt, the only other Aggie averaging double figures, led N.C. A&T with 29 points on 8-for-10 shooting from the floor and 11-for-12 shooting from the free throw line. Beckford and Hunt were not the only players having success offensively. It was a night of offense. N.C. A&T shot 61 percent from the field and 71 percent in the second half. The Eagles shot 55 percent and both teams shot better than 50 percent from 3-point range.
But a player who did not shoot much at all may have made the biggest shot of the night. Sophomore James Whitaker was in the game for Ede Egharevba after Egharevba fouled out with 16 points on 4-for-6 shooting from 3-point range with four minutes remaining and the Aggies trailing 83-80. He was only in the game a few seconds before Ahmad Abdullah spotted him wide open and fed him a pass that led to Whitaker pulling up without hesitation and swishing a 3-pointer to tie the game.
“Each player that goes on the court knows I have the upmost confidence in them,” said Joyner. “Whitaker works hard on his shot, and it paid off for him today. I'm happy for him.”
Hunt gave the Aggies the lead on a free throw before NCCU's Dajuan Graf drove to the basket and scored to give the Eagles an 85-84 lead. But Hunt dribbled his way back into the paint to score again to give the Aggies the lead for good with 1:32 to play. Four straight Hunt free throws gave the Aggies a 90-85 lead with 42 seconds remaining.
Patrick Cole tried to keep the Eagles in the game as he scored inside to cut the lead to three. But Beckford hit one of two free throws to give the Aggies a 91-87 lead with 24.2 seconds remaining.
“This was a huge, huge win for the program,” said Joyner. “North Carolina Central has been a very good team in our league for a long time. I'm very proud of the guys. We want our indemnity to be defense, but tonight wasn't obviously about defense it was about guts. We traded baskets with them for a long period of time but our guys never flinched.”
