NICEVILLE, Fla. – On the shoulders of a career-high 28 points from freshman forward Marcus Watson Buford, Ga.), the North Carolina A&T men's basketball team defeated the St. Francis Brooklyn Terriers, 73-67, inside Raider Arena in the final game of the Emerald Coast Classic early Saturday afternoon.
After his first career 20-plus point performance yesterday, Watson stayed hot, shooting 10-of-12 from the field, including 3-of-4 from beyond the 3-point arc en route to his career day. As a team, A&T (2-6) shot 8-of-16 (.500) from three and 7-of-11 (.636) from the free throw line.
"I'm proud of this group," said A&T head coach Will Jones. "They came out and responded after a tough game yesterday. The key to this game was rebounding. Looking across the stat sheet, we have guards with nine, six, eight. We did the job rebounding and gave ourselves a comfortable lead. We've got to continue to learn how to win down the stretch, but I'm excited about this performance."
The Aggies outrebounded the Terriers 35-28 collectively. Watson snatched eight rebounds, one of three Aggie guards with six-plus boards in the game. Graduate guard David Beatty (Philadelphia, Pa.0 led the team with nine, and junior guard Demetric Horton (Raleigh, N.C.) had six. That rebounding effort led to a 21-11 advantage in second-chance points.
The second half began with a rim-rocking jam from Watson that set the tone for the first 13 minutes of the second half. The Aggies enjoyed their largest lead of the game after a 3-pointer from Horton put them up, 56-41, with 12:41 left on the clock.
Horton scored 18 points on 7-of-10 shooting from the field and 4-of-6 from beyond the arc.
The Terriers made the game interesting late, shrinking the gap to 63-59 after Michael Cubbage capped an 8-0 run with a short jumper. The Aggies built their lead back to eight, 69-61, on a Watson layup with 2:32 remaining.
But the Terriers cut the lead back to four on back-to-back layups. Watson dropped the dagger, however, with a minute left on a step-back 3-pointer with a defender in his face to put A&T up seven, 72-65.
"We had a conversation with Marcus last night and told him, 'He is more than a 3-point shooter,'" said Jones. "He can get rebounds. He can score at the rim. He doesn't have to waste possessions by shooting NBA-style step-back threes. I'm glad he listened last night. He was a leader for us on the floor, and I'm proud of that."
Watson scored 12 of A&T's first 19 points as the Aggies led 19-16 over the first 10 ½ minutes of the game. A 7-2 run from St. Francis put the Terriers ahead 23-21 before junior forward Jeremy Robinson (Raleigh, N.C.) checked into the game.
Robinson scored six straight points and 11 total in the first half on 5-for-5 shooting to give A&T a 39-32 lead at the break.
