NORFOLK, Va. (January 30, 2017) – North Carolina A&T men's basketball isn't exactly in a good portion of its schedule to end a losing streak. In the second game of a four-game road trip that will be played out over eight days, the Aggies dropped an 83-69 decision to Norfolk State at Echols Hall Monday night. N.C. A&T (1-20, 0-8 MEAC) left Norfolk, Va., Monday night for Dover, Del., and will play the Delaware State Hornets Wednesday night at 7:30. The Aggies will then return to Greensboro before flying out to St. Louis on Friday to face the St. Louis Billikens Saturday night at 7. Before Monday's game, the Aggies were coming off a loss to North Carolina Central on Saturday.
“This is a tough stretch for us right now it what has been a tough season,” said N.C. A&T coach Jay Joyner. “Our job as a staff is to keep the guys positive. In our league you quickly change the narrative of your season if you can start playing well in February and March.”
The Aggies got another strong performance from off the bench as Aaron Scales had 13 points and eight rebounds. Two more Aggies went into double figures as senior Nick Reese had his first career game scoring in double figures with 10 points. Senior forward James Whitaker also had 10. Meanwhile, the Spartans placed five players in double figures led by reigning player of the week in the MEAC, Jonathan Wade who had 17 points. Alex Brown came off the bench to score 16 on 4-for-6 shooting from 3-point range. Zaynah Brown had 12 points and 11 assists.
Despite the strong performances from the Spartans (9-13, 6-2 MEAC), the Aggies were very much in the game in the first half. In fact, the Aggies had a few leads in the first 20 minutes. With a 22-18 lead in hand, the Aggies received a pretty generous gift when Wade, the MEAC's leading scorer, went to the bench with two fouls at the 9:06 mark of the first half. The Aggies, however, were not able to take advantage. The Spartans led 30-26 with 1:43 remaining in the first half. Brown then hit back-to-back threes to close the half as the Spartans led 36-26 at the halftime.
“That without question was a key moment in the game,” said Joyner. “We're not going to be the type of program we want to be until we give maximum effort on every play. We have to get out on shooters more consistently. We haven't done that lately.”
Two days after NCCU went 16-for-33 from 3-point range, the Spartans were 13-for-27 Monday and shot 53.7 percent (29-for-54) from the floor. The Aggies never recovered from Brown's shot as the Spartans opened the half on an 18-4 run to take their biggest lead of the game at 54-30 with 15:06 to play.
After the grueling road trip, the Aggies will finally get to return to Corbett Sports Center on Feb. 7 to take on Allen University at 7 p.m.
