WILLIAMSBURG, Va. -- It was stressful, but in the end, the North Carolina A&T men's basketball team was successful. After taking a big lead late in the game, the Aggies held on for a 90-86 win over the William & Mary Tribe at Kaplan Arena Saturday night.
The win moves A&T above .500 in the Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) at 5-4. In addition, the Aggies, who are 10-12 overall, are an impressive 4-1 on the road in conference play. The Tribe dropped its third straight to move to 8-13 overall and 3-5 in the CAA.
Marcus had a career night for the Aggies. He tied a career-high with 28 points. He also had a career-high seven assists and added five rebounds on 10-for-19 shooting from the field, 3-for-7 from 3-point range and 6-for-6 from the line.
"It was a good bounce-back win for us, but it was a stressful ending," said A&T interim head coach Phillip Shumpert referring to the Aggies loss to Towson on Thursday. "We beat a good William & Mary team tonight. That was the same team that ended UNC Wilmington's 15-game winning, so we knew we needed to come in and execute our game plan well if we wanted to win, and I think, for the most part, we did that."
The Aggies got off to a good start early, taking a 17-8 lead over the first eight minutes of the game before the Tribe's Gabe Dorsey tied the game at 36 going into the half with a 3-pointer.
But the Aggies reestablished control of the game after a Ben Wright 3-point play tied the game at 66 with 6:04 remaining in the game. Graduate forward Webster Filmore made one of two free throws to give the Aggies the lead for good in the game before a Kam Woods pass to Kyle Duke became the igniter in a 15-0 A&T run that gave the Aggies an 81-66 lead with 1:46 to play.
Within that run, a pretty alley-oop pass from Woods resulted in a ferocious dunk from Marcus Watson. Watson also had a 3-pointer during the run, followed by a Duke dunk off a pass from Watson.
"I took Marcus out of the game and talked with him, and I give him credit for responding because he played phenomenal," said Shumpert. "He made timely passes in transition, hit a couple of big threes, and the guys got him the basketball where he could score. He sparked that run and did a good job on the defensive end too. When he steps up to the plate, it's amazing what we are able to accomplish."
But A&T's impressive run would not mark the final chapter of Saturday's game. W&M turned A&T's 15-point lead into an eight-point lead in under a minute. Dorey's 3-pointer made it an 84-76 contest with 53 seconds remaining.
Fifteen seconds later, after an A&T turnover, Noah Collins followed his miss with a layup to bring the Tribe to within six. Another A&T turnover led to a Dorsey layup as A&T saw its lead cut to 84-80. The Tribe got to within three on three separate occasions over the final 30 seconds. But A&T hit enough free throws to keep W&M's miracle comeback in the what-could-have-been category.
A&T went 6-for-10 from the free throw line over the final 37 seconds of the game. Watson was the only Aggie to hit two consecutive free throws in that stretch. Those crucial free throws gave the Aggies an 89-84 lead with 10 seconds to play.
"We called timeout and made sure we got the ball into the hands of our better free throw shooters," said Shumpert. "It is stressful to see us miss so many free throws, but we continue to work on free throws each and every day. We are struggling right now, but we must be better if we want to remain in the thick of this conference race."
A&T will play four straight games in North Carolina, starting with two straight at home against Drexel (Jan. 26) and Monmouth (Jan. 28) before playing at UNCW (Feb. 2) and at home against Elon (Feb. 8).
Collier led W&M with 22 points and 16 rebounds on 8-for-10 shooting. Woods, the conference's third-leading scorer, added 19 points, five rebounds and six assists for A&T.
