CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – North Carolina A&T had to play not only an ACC team on Tuesday night but one with a historic reputation of being notoriously stingy on the defensive end in the Virginia Cavaliers.
Despite that, the Aggies got some good looks from the floor, and they started to fall in the second half. Unfortunately, they did not in the first half as the Wahoos raced out to a big lead before defeating the Aggies 80-51 at John Paul Arena.
The Aggies dropped to 0-3, with two losses against ACC competition. UVa improved to 3-0. Landon Glasper led the Aggies with 18 points, knocking down 5 of his 11 3-point attempts. He was the only Aggie in double figures. The Cavaliers benefited from a massive advantage in the post, out-rebounding A&T 42-24, outscoring them 15-2 in second-chance points and had a 40-10 advantage in scoring in the paint.
Four of Virginia's first five field goals came in the paint as the Cavaliers took a 12-6 lead over the first 6 1/2 minutes of the game. The Cavaliers then hit back-to-back 3-pointers to take an 18-6 advantage. After a Kyle Duke floater in the paint got the Aggies to within 10, Virginia scored 10 straight points to take a 20-point advantage at 28-8. It was all Virginia from there as the Cavaliers lead grew to as many as 30 in the first half.
"Virginia's defense is top-5 in the country every season for a reason," said A&T head coach Monté Ross. "The encouraging thing for me going into halftime was I didn't think we would get the type of open looks we got in the first half. But the way our guys ran the offense, I knew the shots would fall in the second half because we got really, really good shots running our offense. We just didn't make them.
We had some good looks that we normally make, and we didn't. But we made them in the second half, and that changes the whole complexion of the game when you make a few shots. When that basket closes up on you, it affects everything."
The Aggies shot 44 percent in the second half as opposed to 21.4 percent in the first half. The Aggies also went 7-for-16 (.438) from 3-point range in the second half after shooting 1-for-15 (.067) in the first half. Ryan Dunn led the Cavaliers with 13 points and 11 rebounds.
After a difficult schedule to start the season, the Aggies will take a week off from competition before playing in Samford's tournament, Nov. 22-25. They open the tournament against Merrimack on Wednesday, Nov. 22, before facing Alabama State on Friday and host Samford on Saturday.
"We have some things we need to clean up," Ross said. "But from this three-game stretch from these three tough opponents, I like the trajectory of this team. One of the things this three-game stretch has allowed us to do is test ourselves. When you test yourself against high-level opponents, you have to make sure that when you play other opponents, you stay at the same level.
The standard is the standard – share the basketball, take care of the basketball, and take good shots. All of those are the standards of our program right now, and we have to make sure we live up to them no matter who we're playing."
