EAST GREENSBORO – Call it a lesson learned for the North Carolina A&T Aggies men's basketball team as they look forth to a difficult Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) road game at UNC Wilmington on Thursday.
The Aggies are already looking forward to Thursday because on Saturday at Corbett Sports Center, the one-win Monmouth Hawks played perhaps their best game of the season in a 79-64 upset win over the Aggies at Corbett Sports Center.
The loss put a halt to the Aggies momentum. They came into the game winners of five of their last six. But A&T shot 37 percent from the floor to drop to 11-13 overall and 6-5 in the CAA. Monmouth (2-20, 1-8 CAA) ended a 12-game losing streak to capture its first conference win of the season.
"Hats off to Monmouth. They have been through a rough season, but they're still fighting," said A&T interim head coach Phillip Shumpert. "They play hard each and every game. A few nights ago, they almost beat (7-3 UNC Wilmington), and they were up on ( 18th-ranked College of Charleston) at halftime. So we should have come out with more of a sense of urgency. We looked at their record, didn't bring it, and got what we deserved. When you disrespect your opponent, these things happen."
Monmouth came into the game ranked last among all Division I schools in scoring margin (minus-20.2), 3-pointers made per game (4.1) and next to last in scoring offense (57.0). But that's not the team that showed up to Corbett. Instead, the Hawks shot 53 percent from the floor and were 6-for-11 (.545) from 3-point range in scoring a season-high 79 points.
"I was very concerned," said Shumpert about playing Monmouth. "We beat a 6-2 team in Drexel, and then you turn around and play the last-place team in the conference. I was nervous about whether we would bring the same amount of energy that we brought against Drexel. No matter how many timeouts I called, we could never get that same energy out of those guys."
Shumpert resisted calling a timeout early after Monmouth jumped out to an 11-3 over the first six minutes. His team rewarded his decision. The Aggies went on a 10-0 that included two 3-pointers from junior Marcus Watson and a 4-point play from sophomore guard Kam Woods, and all seemed right as the Aggies took a 13-11 lead.
But Woods' spectacular 3-pointer and and-one marked his only made three of the game. The conference's leader in 3-pointers made per game went 1-for-13 from the floor and 1-for-10 from 3-point range on his way to six points, his lowest output in conference play.
Marcus Watson led the Aggies with his third straight 20-plus-point performance, as he closed with 25 points and seven rebounds on 9-for-16 shooting from the field and 3-for-8 from three. However, he had eight turnovers.
Monmouth used a rare off night from Woods and 14 A&T turnovers to its advantage. The Hawks made a late first-half surge to take a 34-24 lead with 1:21 to play. But a dunk from senior forward Austin Johnson and a 3-point play from graduate forward Webster Filmore pulled the Aggies to within five. Monmouth freshman Jack Collins netted a three to give the Hawks a 37-29 halftime lead.
"Offensively, we had our looks. We just had a bad night shooting it," said Shumpert. "Marcus had 25 points, but he turned it over eight times, and (Kam Woods) had his worst game in an Aggies uniform. We usually have a high-powered offense, and not having that hurt our defense. We had so many shots rim out, and we got a little deflated when we had to go back on defense."
The Aggies are usually a terrific second-half team, having recovered from many double-figure leads in conference play. But the Hawks did shoot 54.5 percent in the second half and would build a 55-37 lead at the 13:38 mark of the second half. However, A&T outscored the Hawks 13-2 over the next 3 1/2 minutes.
Watson and senior Demetric Horton hit 3-pointers during the spurt to cut Monmouth's lead to 57-50. But the Aggies never got any closer, and when Collins hit a 3-pointer from the wing to give Monmouth a 72-57 lead with 3:47 to play, it seemed to put a damper on any hopes of more A&T second-half heroics.
"Guys are going to hit open shots when the opportunity is available. This is the CAA," said Shumpert. "Everybody is good, and everybody can beat you if you don't come to play. We learned a lesson tonight, and now we've got to move on and prepare for Wilmington at their place."
It will be a 7 p.m. tip at UNCW on Thursday, Feb. 2. Horton added 13 points for the Aggies. Tahron Allen led the Hawks with 23 points and nine rebounds.
