Men's Basketball | 1/12/2022 10:21:00 AM

Hampton at North Carolina A&T  
When: Wednesday, January 12, 2022, 7 p.m. 
Where: Corbett Sports Center (East Greensboro, N.C.) 
TV/Radio: ESPN+ / Spencer Turkin/Cy Alexander  

A&T Team Leaders
Points: Marcus Watson (12.8)
Rebounds: Marcus Watson (6.0)
Assists: Kameron Langley (5.3)
Blocks: Harry Morrice (1.1)
Steals: Kameron Langley (1.7)
Field Goal Percentage: Webster Filmore (.574)
3-point Field Goal Percentage: Demetric Horton (.410)
Free Throw Percentage: Tyler Maye (.792) 

A&T Big South Leaders (Top-10)  
Rebounds: Marcus Watson (5.8) – 5th
Assists: Kameron Langley (5.3) – 1st
Blocks: Harry Morrice (1.1) – 6th
Steals: Kameron Langley (1.7) – T-3rd; Demetric Horton (1.4) 24) – T-9^th
Free Throw Percentage: Marcus Watson (.724) – 5^th
3-point Field Goals Made: Demetic Horton 2.1) – 8^th
Assist/Turnover Ratio: Kameron Langley (2.3) – 1^st
Offensive Rebounds: Webster Filmore (2.3) – T-2^nd; Tyler Maye (1.9) – T-8th
Defensive Rebounds: Marcus Watson (4.6) –5^th

A&T National Leaders (Top-100)
Assists: Kameron Langley (5.3) – 27^th
Total Assists: Kameron Langley (80) – 21^st
Steals: Kameron Langley (24) – 88th 
Total Steals: Kameron Langley (25) – 99^th
Assists/Turnover Ratio: Kameron Langley (2.3) – 61^st



NORTH CAROLINA A&T AGGIES (7-9, 2-0 BIG SOUTH): Aggies guard Demetric Horton is coming two key back-to-back performances. In the Aggies Big South opener, Horton scored 26 points on 10-for-13 shooting from the floor to lead the Aggies to a 65-57 win over Presbyterian last Wednesday night. He followed that performance by hitting two key shots in the final two minutes of the Aggies 73-72 win at Radford on Saturday. Horton hit a 3-pointer with two minutes remaining to give the Aggies a one-point lead before hitting the game-winning jump shot with 1:08 to play.

Wingman Marcus Watson has also played well in conference play. In two games, he has a combined 34 points and 20 rebounds. He is also 15-for-17 from the line (.882)  in the Aggies 2-0 conference start. Guard David Beatty has taken over the point guard duties since the New Year and COVID issues and has turned the ball over only five times in 66 minutes of action in conference play.

Head coach Will Jones is in his third season and his second full season as the Aggies head coach. He took over on interim basis on December 24, 2019. Jones is 21-5 against conference opponents, and he is 32-25 (.561) overall as the Aggies head man. Last season, Jones led the Aggies to their first regular-season title in 31 years, and in 2020 he was named Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) coach of the year. 

HAMPTON PIRATES (4-8, 0-1 BIG SOUTH): The Pirates will come into #ClubCorbett having played only one game in the past month. The Pirates opened the season 2-0 before losing six straight. They snapped their losing streak with a one-point win over archrival Norfolk State on Dec. 4. The Pirates followed that up with one-point win at William & Mary before losing at Loyola (Md.). The Pirates opened Big South conference play with a 78-69 loss at Gardner-Webb.

Russell Dean led the Pirates with 27 points on 6-for-11 shooting from the field and 12-for-12 shooting from the free throw line.
Dean, a 6-foot-4 sophomore guard out of Columbia, S.C., is averaging 13.0 points per game and shooting .333 from 3-point range. Najee Garvin (6-8, forward) leads the Pirates in scoring (16.7) and rebounding (5.8).

Hampton is the best free throw shooting team (.705) in the league, but the Pirates are last in scoring offense (62.2) and field goal percentage (.384).

Edward Joyner, Jr. is in his 13^th season as the head coach of the Hampton Pirates. Joyner has had tremendous success with the Pirates, including winning an NCAA tournament game in 2015. Joyner has led the Pirates to three MEAC tournament titles (2011, '15, '16). He has also led the Pirates to three NCAA tournament appearances, one NIT appearance (2018) and one CIT appearance (2019), where the Pirates advanced to the semifinals before losing.  

THE SERIES: A&T and Hampton will play for the 66^th time Wednesday night. The Pirates lead the series, 38-27. The two former CIAA and MEAC foes have not played each other since the Pirates beat the Aggies at the 2018 MEAC tournament semifinal, 96-86, on March 9, 2018.  

QUOTABLES: "We've got to be ready for a tough team coming in here trying to get off to a good start. But for us it is a 1-0 mentality again. We have been preparing for them since Monday, and hopefully we can get the job done."  
  GAME NOTES: 

• A&T won the first NCAA sanctioned matchup against Hampton, 91-88, in 1952 in the CIAA. The first MEAC contest between the two teams occurred in 1997 when the Aggies beat the Pirates 82-75 at Corbett Sports Center.
• The two teams have not played each other since the 2018 MEAC tournament. The longest time the two teams went without playing each other was from 1964-1997.
• The last time the Pirates played in Corbett, the Aggies came away with a 92-84 win on Feb. 3, 2018. Davaris McGowens had 21 points and eight rebounds. Kameron Langley had 17 points, seven assists and zero turnovers and shot 6-for-8 from the floor.
• The Aggies are 15-14 against the Pirates at home.
• A&T started the season 0-7 on the road, but they have won their last two including Saturday's 73-72 win at Radford.
• For the season, the Aggies are shooting .431 from the floor, .313 from 3-point range and .650 from the free throw line. But in their first two conference games, the Aggies are combined 45-for-99 (.455) from the floor, 10-for-21 (.476) from 3-point range and 38-for-50 (.760) from the line.
• Graduate guard Kameron Langley has 837 career assists to rank 23^rd all-time. He needs just 63 more to become one of only 15 players in NCAA history to record 900 or more career assists.