CULLOWHEE – The North Carolina A&T men's basketball team did not get the defensive effort they wanted in a 90-64 loss to Western Carolina Tuesday night at the Ramsey Center. The Catamounts were 15-for-28 from the 3-point arc.

The N.C. A&T Aggies got a 26-point showing from the bench. N.C. A&T fell to 1-2 overall after losing to their Southern Conference school this season.

“We did a poor job guarding the 3-point line,” said N.C. A&T coach Jay Joyner. “We didn't compete for 40 minutes. We have to continue to work to get better.”

Tyrone Lyons led the Aggies with nine points and two steals. Kameron Langley also tacked on nine points, four assists and two steals and Webster Filmore helped out with seven points, seven rebounds and two steals off of the bench. Ron Langley had a team-high 10 points along with five rebounds.

Led by Filmore's five offensive rebounds, N.C. A&T did a great job crashing the offensive glass, pulling down 11 boards that resulted in 11 second-chance points.

N.C. A&T forced 21 Western Carolina turnovers while committing 16 themselves in Tuesday's game. The Aggies turned those takeaways into 21 points on the offensive end of the floor. Darus Maddox led the way individually with two steals.

N.C. A&T struggled out of the gate, falling behind 43-31 heading into halftime.

Western Carolina kept widening its lead after intermission, constructing an 86-57 advantage before N.C. A&T went on a 7-0 run, finished off by Lyons' layup, to shrink the deficit to 86-64 with 2:03 to go in the contest. Western Carolina responded and outscored the Aggies the rest of the way. N.C. A&T took care of business in the paint outscoring the Catamounts 44-28 in the lane. 

Mason Faulkner led the Catamounts with a triple-double of 13 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists. 

“We didn't play well. We need to keep working,” said Joyner.

The Aggies will now embark on an 11-day, four-game trip starting with a game at Utah State on Friday, Nov. 15 at Utah State. The game tips at 9 p.m., EST. The Aggies will also go to Dallas to play North Texas (Nov. 19) before playing two games in Jamaica (Nov. 22-24).