North Carolina A&T vs. Charleston Southern
When: Wednesday, February 9, 7:00 p.m.
Where: Corbett Sports Center (East Greensboro, N.C.)
TV/Radio: ESPN3 / Spencer Turkin, pxp; Cy Alexander, analyst
A&T Team Leaders
Points: Marcus Watson (12.3 PPG)
Rebounds: Marcus Watson (5.7 RPG)
Assists: Kameron Langley (4.8 APG)
Blocks: Harry Morrice (19)
Steals: Kameron Langley (31)
Field Goal Percentage: Tyler Maye (.467)
3-pt Field Goal Percentage: Demetric Horton (.359)
Free Throw Percentage: Tyler Maye (.725)
A&T Big South Leaders (Top-10)
Rebounds: Marcus Watson (5.7) – 8th
Assists: Kameron Langley (111) – 1st
Blocks: Harry Morrice (19) – t-8th
Steals: Kameron Langley (31) – 9th
A&T National Leaders (Top-100)
Assists: Kameron Langley (111) – 30th
NORTH CAROLINA A&T AGGIES (9-15, 4-6 Big South): After starting 4-1 in Big South Conference play, the Aggies have now dropped their last five games, the longest such streak under head coach Will Jones.
A&T averages just 64.6 points per game and shoots 39.9 percent from the field as a team over that stretch. A big part of that struggle has been the inconsistencies on offense, with scoring droughts leading to second-half deficits.
Junior guard Demetric Horton dropped 28 points in the Aggies Big South debut win over Presbyterian. But over his last three games, he has shot 8-of-30 (.267) from the field and just 2-of-17 (.118) from 3-point range.
Coach Jones is in his third season overall and second full season after initially taking over on an interim basis on December 24, 2019. In that same season, Jones earned Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) coach of the year honors and sports a 34-30 (.531) overall record at A&T.
CHARLESTON SOUTHERN (5-18, 1-9 Big South): The Buccaneers won a one-off non-conference game Monday, a 97-60 victory over Toccoa Falls. Before that, the Bucs took Big South-leading Longwood down to the wire, 69-67, over the weekend.
Big South head coaches picked The Buccaneers to finish fifth in the South Division in the league's preseason poll, receiving 47 total points.
They are led offensively by redshirt sophomore guard Tahlik Chavez, who is the only player on the team averaging double-figures at 11.8 points per game. Against Longwood, he dropped a season-high 27 points on 9-of-20 shooting. Chavez has 14 double-figure scoring games on the year, including seven with 15-plus points.
As a team, CSU is seventh in the conference at 69.2 points a night, but they give up a league-worst 75.6 defensively. That is good for a league-worst minus-6.4 scoring margin.
Barclay Radebaugh is in his 17th season as head coach of the Bucs men's basketball program after taking over in 2005. He has won two Big South regular-season titles (2013, 2015) and is a two-time conference coach of the year (2012, 2015). Radebaugh has put together four winning seasons, including back-to-back seasons with 19 wins from 2011-13. He has an overall record of 215-292 (.424) at CSU. In one season at Queens (2003-04), Radebaugh went 21-8. He has a 236-300 (.440) record overall.
THE SERIES: Wednesday will feature the third game in the series history, with the Aggies having won the previous two. Each team has played a home game in the series. A&T beat CSU, 63-49, on Nov. 8, 2019, inside the Corbett Sports Center.
QUOTABLE: "Charleston Southern plays extremely hard. We need to have great energy and great execution on Wednesday."
Head coach Will Jones ahead of Wednesday's game
GAME NOTES:
- A&T has won both previous matchups against the Bucs by an average of 10.5 points.
- Jones is 1-0 as a head coach against CSU.
- The Aggies have had 16 games decided by 10 points or less this season. They are 7-9 (.438) in those games.
- In February, A&T is 8-5 (.615) under head coach Will Jones and 6-0 at home.
- This season, CSU is 1-9 (.100) on the road, including 0-4 in Big South play.
- The two teams are nearly identical in scoring, with A&T averaging 68.2 points per game and CSU averaging 68.0 points a night.
- The discrepancy lies in points allowed, where the Bucs give up a league-worst 75.6 points on average, and the Aggies allow just 70.4.
- Radebaugh gave Jones his start in coaching at the Division I level at Charleston Southern in 2009.
- Jones was an assistant there for two seasons (2009-11), and CSU went 29-33 (.468) during that time.
- In addition, Jones was also born 18 miles from Charleston Southern's campus in Moncks Corner, S.C.
- Graduate guard Kameron Langley leads the Big South in assists per game (4.8). His 868 career dimes are the 18th most in NCAA history and first in the country among active players.