GREENSBORO (January 7, 2017) – The North Carolina A&T men's basketball team is eagerly anticipating the game where they piece together all the important aspects of winning basketball contests. They were almost there Saturday evening until multiple turnovers late in the game led to Delaware State pulling out a 55-53 win at Corbett Sports Center.
N.C. A&T dropped to 1-14 on the season and 0-2 in the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference, which almost seems unfair considering they responded to many of head coach Jay Joyner's directives after their Wednesday loss at Hampton. After the Pirates outhustled the Aggies in rebounding, Joyner demanded his team give him maximum effort going into the DSU contest.
The Aggies outrebounded the Hornets 43-24, which Joyner said is an indicator that his team was giving great effort. N.C. A&T, who has not shot well this season, even had its moments offensively. The Aggies shot 58.8 percent in the second half. Meanwhile, the defensive-minded Aggies held the Hornets to 36.4 percent shooting.
As a bonus, the Aggies received a tremendous boost from junior college transfer Donte Watson. After missing his previous 10 games for personal reasons, Watson returned to the lineup and finished with 18 and seven rebounds on 6-for-9 shooting. Fellow junior college transfer Davaris McGowens recorded his third double-double of the season with 15 points and 12 rebounds.
"I'm happy for Watson because today does a tremendous amount of good for his confidence,” said Joyner. “To bounce back the way he did after missing so many games, I thought it was phenomenal.”
Yet, the Aggies turned the ball over six times in the final 5 ½ minutes of the contest which proved to be costly.
“This one is tough to swallow because I felt like we played well enough to win, but we didn't value the basketball,” said Joyner. “I'm frustrated because I felt like my guys deserved a 'W' tonight. They did what I asked them to do, they destroyed them on the glass. But there is no way I thought we would come in here and turn the ball over 20 times. As a coach it's frustrating to watch your team put together this type of effort and not take care of the ball.”
When Watson took the ball from DSU's Artem Tavakalyn in the backcourt and whipped a pass underneath to McGowens for an emphatic dunk, the small crowd gathered in Corbett despite seven inches of snow outside, erupted as the Aggies took a 53-49 lead with 1:54 remaining.
After DSU guard Mahir Johnson scored on a free throw, the Hornets took advantage of an Amari Hamilton turnover as Devin Morgan netted a 3-pointer to tie the game at 53 with 58 seconds remaining. Junior Eliel Gonzalez was then called for a travel in the backcourt, giving the Hornets the ball back five seconds later.
DeAndre Haywood tried to give the Hornets the lead, but McGowens swatted his shot approximately four feet. Before the ball went out of bounds, redshirt junior Sam Hunt grabbed it and raced down the floor for a layup attempt. Hunt's layup rolled around the rim before falling into the hands of Tavakalyn with 13 seconds remaining.
After a 30-second DSU timeout, Haywood once again tried to drive the ball to the basket and challenge McGowens. This time he had success as McGowens got to the rim late and fouled Haywood who completed the layup for a 55-53 lead with three-tenths of a second remaining. DSU outscored the Aggies 22-7 in points off turnovers as the Hornets finished with only seven turnovers.
“Believe it or not, I thought we had enough points to win tonight,” said Joyner. “If we take care of the ball I truly believe we get out of here with a W.”
