EAST GREENSBORO – Forgive the North Carolina A&T men's basketball team for being sluggish early against NAIA school St. Andrews Tuesday night at Corbett Sports Center.
They've had an extensive work schedule that included playing two Power Fives back-to-back and losing two tough games to mid-majors in Spartanburg, S.C., over the weekend.
But the Aggies found their energy toward the end of the first half before turning it on to start the second half in a 109-57 win over the St. Andrews Knights.
The Aggies put together back-to-back 100-plus games at home for the first since Corbett opened in 1978. The Aggies scored 100 points against Edward Waters in their previous home game on November 7. It is the first time they have produced 100 points or more in consecutive home games since the 1970-71 season.
Sophomore guard Kam Woods led six Aggies in double figures with 19 points, a season-high eight assists and three steals on 8-for-15 shooting. Junior Marcus Watson added 17 points on 7-for-13 shooting.
"It was just nice to get a win," said assistant coach Bruce Martin, who was filling in for interim head coach Phillip Shumpert who missed his third straight game with an illness. "Our guys have been on the road, so our last day off was a travel day back from Iowa.
We were kind of low energy for a good portion of the game because I think the zone slowed us down a little bit. But we picked it up when we needed to at the beginning of the second half, and of course, it's always great to get a win."
The win snapped the Aggies (2-4) four-game losing streak. It also improved A&T to 48-12 over their last 60 games played in Corbett.
St. Andrews (0-7), who has now surrendered 90 or more points in five of its seven games this season, had the game in single digits, 22-13, on an Ameil Malone jumper with 11:46 remaining in the first half.
But two minutes later, sophomore Love Bettis pulled up on a fastbreak and swished a three to put the Aggies up by 12, 25-13. After that, the Knights never got the lead under double figures. The Aggies added a 9-0 run in the first half to take a 44-22 lead with 3:05 remaining in the first half.
A&T ended the final 2 1/2 minutes of the first half strong by scoring nine straight points that included a Bettis three, two fastbreak layups by Woods and an alley-oop dunk by Austin Johnson to give the Aggies a 53-28 halftime lead. Bettis came off the Aggies bench to score a season-high 15 points on a season-high five made 3-pointers.
The Aggies then started the half with a 14-2 run that included two Webster Filmore dunks and three Aggie 3-pointers, giving A&T a commanding 67-30 lead three minutes into the second half.
"We must keep getting better at what we do," said Martin. "We need to keep building our good habits, keep executing on offense, and put complete 40-minute games together."
The Aggies shot a season-high 53.8 percent, dished out a season-high 30 assists and compiled a season-high 19 steals. Three Aggies had 11 points, including Johnson, senior Demetric Horton and sophomore Kyle Duke. Johnson had a team-high seven rebounds, Horton added a career-high seven assists and Duke hit 5 of 6 shots from the floor.
Malone led the Knights with 22 points and 12 rebounds.
