A&T STATISTICAL LEADERS: G Kameron Langley (14 pts, 7 assists, 6 rebs, 4 stl); F Collin Smith (14 pts, 7 rebs).
HPU STATISTICAL LEADERS: G John-Michael Wright (18 pts, 4 rebs, 4 assists); G Jaden House (15 pts, 6 rebs); F Zach Austin (14 pts, 6 rebs); G Bryant Randleman (10 pts, 7 assists, 6 rebs)
WHY A&T DIDN'T GET THE W: Rebounding. The Aggies got out-boarded 39-23, which led to the Panthers having a 15-8 advantage in second-chance points.
WHY HPU GOT THE W: The Panthers got an excellent lift from their bench, outscoring the Aggies 25-17. House came off the bench with 15 points, including 5-of-5 shooting from the free throw line. HPU shot 82.4 percent from the free throw line, while the Aggies shot 41 percent.
CRUCIAL: Demetric Horton swooped to the basket for a layup followed by a Langley 3-pointer to cut HPU's lead to 49-38 with 15 minutes to play. It felt like a #ClubCorbett run was coming for the Aggies. But that would not be the case. Instead, HPU scored the next 10 points, with Bryson Childress delivering the one-two punch with back-to-back 3-pointers to give the Panthers a 59-38 lead with 11:40 remaining.
EAST GREENSBORO – The North Carolina A&T men's basketball team suffered their third home loss of the season on Wednesday night, a 78-58 defeat at the hands of the High Point University Panthers inside Corbett Sports Center.
The loss drops A&T to 11-18 overall and 6-9 in Big South play while HPU improves to 12-17 and 6-9 in league action.
The contest's first points belonged to graduate big man Collin Smith on a jump hook in the lane. That was followed by eight straight points from the Panthers, half of those coming from Bryant Randleman.
Smith tied the game at 8 following another floater in the paint, but that's when the Panther bench, in particular Jaden House, started to get going. House knocked down back-to-back triples, and singlehandedly scored HPU's next 11 points, putting them ahead 19-10.
Two free throws from David Beatty and yet another layup from Smith would get the Aggies within five, but seven-straight points from John-Michael Wright, the Big South's leading scorer, pushed HPU's advantage to 12.
The Panthers led by as much as 15 in the first half following a layup from Wright, but four points and two assists from Kameron Langley aided in A&T's comeback effort that got them within seven. Three points in the final minute from Wright and Zach Austin gave HPU a 10-point advantage, 37-27, at the break.
Two significant moments defined the second half. First, the Aggies cut HPU's lead to 43-33 on a short jumper from Jeremy Robinson in the lane. Then, on the ensuing possession, Austin missed a 3-pointer, but Rob Peterson III appeared to be bumped by Horton before going up for the offensive rebound.
But instead, his tip-in was counted. He went to the line to convert the 3-point play to give the Panthers a 46-33 lead. Austin then hit a 3-pointer to put the Panthers ahead by 16 with 16 minutes to play. However, the Aggies scored the next five points before a 10-0 HPU run that included consecutive 3-pointers from Childress to give HPU an insurmountable 21-point lead.
Austin was the primary source of HPU's offensive outburst, scoring 10 points in the first nine minutes of the second half.
The Panthers shot 54.7 percent from the floor and 42.9 percent from 3-point range.
QUOTABLE: "We've been consistently inconsistent. I've got to try and figure out how to get them ready to play again as they did on Saturday and how they did two Saturdays ago against Longwood. We played really good games against Longwood and Campbell, and in-between, we haven't played well, so it's just trying to get them back up and ready to play, trying to motivate them to play hard for each other. That's really what I'm going to try and do before Saturday and before the Big South Tournament."
A&T Head Coach Will Jones on what he wants to see from his team down the stretch
GAME NOTES:
- A&T suffers their first home February loss under Jones, dropping to 8-1.
- In February, they are now 8-6 (.571) all-time under Jones.
- Langley notched his 48th-career double-figure scoring game with 14 points Wednesday.
- With his seven dimes tonight, Langley now has 890 for his career, putting him tied for 16th-most all-time in NCAA history.
- After Wednesday's action, Langley has led the Aggies in assists 19 times this season. He has led the Aggies in assists 108 times in his career.
