Kevin L. Dorsey

Kameron Langley, who has had a historic career for A&T, played his final game at Corbett Sports Center.

Men's Basketball 2/26/2022 11:21:00 PM

Aggies Drop Fourth Straight Game After Home Loss to Radford

Kameron Langley played in his final game at Corbett.

Box Score

A&T STATISTICAL LEADERS: F Marcus Watson (15 pts, 7 rebs (3 offensive); G Tyler Maye (10 pts, 3-for-5 FGs); G Kameron Langley (8pts, 6 rebs, 3 assists, 2 stls).

RADFORD STATISTICAL LEADERS: F Rashun (15 pts, 5 rebs, 6-for-13 FGs); G Josiah Jeffers (12 pts, 4 assists, 3 stls); F Chryee Walker (9 pts, 13 rebs (4 offensive), 4-for-6 FGs).

WHY A&T DID NOT GET THE W: Longwood Aftermath. Things have not gone well for the Aggies since they defeated then Big South leader Longwood at Corbett Sports Center on Feb. 12. Longwood came into the game undefeated in the conference before the Aggies big win. However, four days later, the Aggies gave up 93 points on 11-for-16 shooting from 3-point range in a 93-82 loss at Hampton. They then had the 64-63 controversial loss at Campbell A&T head coach Will Jones said that loss took more out of his team than he expected, evidenced by two straight less than stellar performances at home to High Point University on Wednesday and Radford on Saturday.

WHY RADFORD DID GET THE W: Rebounding. Neither team shot the ball well, but the Highlanders had a 47-34 rebounding advantage and an 18-11 offensive rebounding advantage. There were times when the Highlanders had three or four opportunities on an offensive possession because of their work on the glass. It led to the Highlanders outscoring the Aggies 18-10 in second-chance points.

CRUCIAL: Aggies junior forward Jeremy Robinson came off the bench, took a pass from Demetric Horton and netted a three from the top of the key to bring the Aggies to within three, 43-40, with 11:43 remaining in the game. A&T's next points did not come until there was 6:58 to play. Radford's lead had grown to 53-42 at that point. The Aggies never got closer than seven the rest of the way.

EAST GREENSBORO -- When historians complete the history of the glorious past of the North Carolina A&T men's basketball program, fifth-year guard Kameron Langley will undoubtedly have a page about him.

Therefore, an end to an era occurred Saturday night at Corbett Sports Center during the Aggies 63-52 loss to the Radford Highlanders. On Saturday, the Aggies honored five players playing in their final game at #ClubCorbett, including Langley.

Langley will leave A&T not only as the men's basketball program's all-time leader in assists and steals, but he is also the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference's (MEAC) all-time assist leader. His 893 career assists make him the NCAA leader among active players.

Going into the Big South Conference Championship Basketball Tournament, Langley ranks 15th all the NCAA's all-time list. Langley also has 273 career steals, which ranks 93rd all-time.

"He's had an unbelievable career here," said A&T coach Will Jones. "He helped lift this program out of the ashes into being competitive on a championship level. So it's been a special time for him in terms of being a great player here."

The Aggies were 3-29 the season before Langley arrived. After his arrival, A&T finished above .500 for four straight seasons, including a 20-win and a 19-win season. The Aggies have finished top-two in the conference since his arrival, and a season ago, he helped the Aggies win the MEAC Southern Division.

Therefore, Jones would have liked to have seen Langley win his final game at Corbett. But the Aggies could never secure the lead on Saturday.

The Aggies will get a chance at redemption against Radford because they will play the Highlanders in the first round of the Big South tournament at 11:30 a.m., Wednesday, March 2, at the Bojangles' Coliseum in Charlotte.

The Aggies are the eighth seed, and Radford is seeded ninth. If A&T wins, they will get top seed Longwood Friday at noon.

On Saturday, Langley got the Aggies to within four as he drove to the basket, scored, and was fouled on the play. Langley converted the 3-point play to cut Radford's lead to 41-37. with 13:14 remaining in the game.

Two Rashun Williams free throws put the Highlanders ahead by six before a Jeremy Robinson 3-pointer cut the lead in half. The Highlanders then put together a 10-0 run to take a 53-40 lead with seven minutes to play.

Radford led by double figures over the next 3 1/2 minutes before A&T made one final run. Langley drove and dished to Webster Filmore, who played in his last game at Corbett, for an easy layup to Radford's lead to 57-48 with 3:23 remaining.

Thirty seconds later, Marcus Watson found Filmore underneath for another easy two. It appeared Filmore would have another easy bucket to cut the Highlanders lead to five, but the shot rimmed out with two minutes to play.

The Aggies never got any closer the rest of the way.
"It was another tough loss for the guys on Senior Night," said Jones. "it's the second straight game where I felt our energy was not there. We're not playing inspired basketball right now. We're not playing like we had been playing when we were playing good ball."

We have one game left for sure. It's a new season. Anybody has an opportunity to win in March. A lot of that starts in the locker room when guys start believing and coming out and putting their best effort on."

Langley and the Aggies hope to have better luck in a conference tournament this season. They won a quarterfinal MEAC tournament game two years ago before the COVID-19 pandemic swept the globe. Last season a false positive test on a staff member prevented the Aggies from playing in the MEAC tournament at all.

QUOTABLE: "Hopefully, tomorrow I can get in there and come up with another plan to try to get them motivated, get them together and get them believing we can win a game on Wednesday. If you win a game on Wednesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday can take care of itself because now you're going out there feeling good about yourself."