EAST GREENSBORO – The North Carolina A&T men's basketball team is the No. 1 team in the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) thanks to a 74-68 win Saturday evening at Corbett Sports Center over the previous No. 1 team in the MEAC. 
 
Norfolk State (10-12, 6-1 MEAC) came into Saturday's game undefeated in the conference. Thanks to a strong defensive effort on Jermaine Bishop, the Aggies (11-12, 7-1 MEAC) extended their conference home game winning streak to 21.
 
"Big-time win," said acting head coach Will Jones. "We knew we had to come out on defense and make it tough for Norfolk to score and I thought the guys did a heck of a job."
 
Bishop came into the game averaging 14.2 points per game. He had just six shot attempts on Saturday and scored 10 points thanks to a strong defensive effort led by junior Kwe Parker. Parker was also valuable offensively with 15 points. Senior guard Andre Jackson also had 15 points. 
 
"Kwe is our energy guy," said Jones. "I told Kwe on Thursday that his job was to make sure Bishop is going to have the hardest night he's going to have all season. I thought we rattled those guys over the first couple of possessions, he was never able to find his rhythm and they need him to score in order to win."
 
Senior forward Ronald Jackson turned in 14 points and nine rebounds and fellow big man Devin Haygood added 12. Junior guard Kameron Langley scored 11 points and added 11 assists for his fifth-straight double-figure assist game. It was his sixth career double-double. Langley needs just 39 dimes to break the Aggies all-time assist record held by Thomas Griffis (582).
 
The Aggies never trailed in the game, leading for 39:17 of game time.
 
N.C. A&T led by nine, 60-51, with 5:34 remaining in the contest. NSU's Joe Bryant hit a 3-pointer to cut the Aggies lead to six. Langley scored on a layup and on the Aggies ensuing possession, Langley threw an alley-oop to Ronald Jackson to extend the lead to 10. The Aggies led by as many as 14, 68-54, with 3:08 remaining. 
 
Norfolk put together a 14-4 run over the next two minutes to pull within four, however, 72-68, with 27 seconds to play. But Ronald Jackson iced the game with a pair of free throws.
 
In the first half, Langley had eight of his 11 assists and Andre Jackson scored 14 of his 15 points to lead the way. Parker hit back-to-back 3-pointers to open the game and the Aggies jumped out to a 16-7 advantage in front of a boisterous crowd of 4,213. 
 
Leading 26-20, N.C. A&T outscored the Spartans 11-4 and took a 37-24 lead into the locker room.
 
Bryant led the way for the Spartans with 17 points. Next up, the Aggies will take on South Carolina State on Monday, Feb. 3 at 7:30 p.m. in the Corbett Sports Center.