EAST GREENSBORO (December 8, 2018) –North Carolina A&T was in a struggle with Division III men's basketball team Greensboro College in the first half Saturday evening at Corbett Sports Center.
N.C. A&T head coach Jay Joyner gave his second-half starters a 60-second deadline to play better before he replaced them. The struggles went away. The Aggies blew past their Market Street neighbors from 2 ½ miles down the road, 92-67, after opening the second half on a 16-1 run.
Graduate forward Terry Harris scored 14 of his team-high 20 points in the second half to lead the Aggies. Four other Aggies scored in double figures including two reserve players. Junior Qua Copeland scored 14 points off the bench and freshman Tyrone Lyons complemented his totals with 10 bench points of his own. Graduate Ibrahim Sylla and senior Milik Gantz had 10 points apiece.
Sophomore Kameron Langley finished with eight points, seven assists and two steals. Senior guard Aaren Edmead had four assists and two steals off the bench as the Aggies outscored The Pride 39-14 in bench points.
“I'm not going to keep begging guys to play hard,” said Joyner. “I thought the starters responded somewhat, but (Aaren) Edmead, Lyons and (Ronald) Jackson are clearly our energy guys coming off the bench and they showed that tonight.”
The Aggies (3-6) took two of three from their three-game homestand and will return to the road for five straight games including their first Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference game of the season at S.C. State on Saturday, Jan. 5. In the meantime, the Aggies will play at Tennessee State next, a 4 p.m., game on Saturday, Dec. 15.
It is a game Joyner sees as a measuring stick for his Aggies before conference play, therefore, he has watched every game the Tigers (2-5) have played this season. In between Tennessee State and S.C. State is no cake walk as the Aggies go to Virginia Tech (Dec. 19), Minnesota (Dec. 21) and East Carolina (Dec. 28).
“We have to take these next five games seriously,” said Joyner. “The first week of conference play is going to be critical because we come out of the gate on the road for the most part. If we go into Tennessee State and get a road win that gives us confidence that we can win on the road.”
Joyner also called TSU a scrappy team who plays hard. GC also proved to be scrappy on Saturday. The Pride (1-8) used the 3-point shot as an equalizer against the much taller Aggies. The Pride were 8 of 13 from three in the first half and finished 12-for-28 for the game. The Aggies did lead by as many as 11, 24-13, in the first half but The Pride went on an 11-0 run to tie the game at 24 on a Keyford Langley 3-pointer.
GC would later take the lead, 38-37, on a Langley 3-pointer with 2:17 remaining in the first half. But younger brother Kameron Langley gave the Aggies the lead back with a steal and an assist to Copeland. A Langley jumper put The Pride back in front before a 3-point play from Gantz gave the Aggies a 42-40 halftime lead.
“We have a bad habit of taking our foot off the gas. That gets you in trouble,” said Joyner about the Aggies losing their double-digit first-half lead. “I'm just happy we had enough guys coming off the bench to get the job done defensively.”
N.C. A&T did clamp down defensively in the second half. It took GC 6 ½ minutes to get their first second-half field goal. By the time Michael Phifer scored for The Pride in the second half, the Aggies had a 58-43 lead. Edmead rebounded his own miss and scored to push that lead to 17.
The Pride got within 12 on a Keyshawn Dorsey 3-pointer. Harris then took over. After a Sylla layup, Harris hit three straight 3-pointers to give the Aggies a 71-48 lead with 9:12 to play. The Pride could not get any closer than 18 the rest of the way. Harris is 12-for-17 from 3-point range in his last two games including 4-for-6 on Saturday.
“Terry is the one consistent guy we have offensively,” said Joyner. “As long as we find him early, we should have enough talent to play off him. Teams will have to key on him shooting the basketball and then the next step for Terry is to be unselfish and pass the ball to his teammates. It is a luxury to have somebody who can knock down threes the way he is capable of knocking them down. I'm just trying to get all this talent to play well together at the same time.”
Joyner has a little longer than 60 seconds to make that happen. There is a deadline, however. Conference play begins in four weeks.
