HOMEWOOD, Ala. – North Carolina A&T fought from behind the evening during the first game of the Samford Thanksgiving Multi-Team Event (MTE) played at the Pete Hanna Center against Merrimack on Wednesday.
But after scrapping to get the game to within single figures in the second half, the Warriors pulled away over the final 7 ½ minutes of action to defeat the Aggies 96-73. The Aggies dropped to 0-4 in the young season. The Warriors improved to 3-2. Landon Glasper led the Aggies with 27 points on 8-for-15 shooting from the field, 5-for-10 shooting from 3-point range and 6-for-7 shooting from the free throw line.
Glasper has hit at least five 3-pointers in his previous three games and has posted 77 points over the same span. But the same issues that dogged the Aggies over their previous three contests emerged again. The Warriors out-rebounded A&T 42-26 and had a 50-28 advantage in points in the paint.
Merrimack took a 59-44 lead five minutes into the second half on a Jaylen Stinson floater in the paint. Jorand Derkack followed with a layup to push the Warriors lead to 17. But five straight points from the Aggies, including a transition three from Glasper, pulled the Aggies to within 12 with 12:42 remaining.
Things stayed stagnant for A&T until 2 ½ minutes later when Camian Shell scored in the lane for the Aggies to get the Warriors lead down to 11, 66-55. After four straight points from the Warriors, the Aggies went on a 7-0 with all seven points scored by graduate forward Jeremy Robinson, who scored on a 3-point play, a hook shot and a dunk to make it a 70-62 ballgame with 7:40 to play. Robinson finished the evening with 17 points and five rebounds on 7-for-10 shooting from the field and 3-for-3 from the foul line.
"I thought Jeremy did a great job of posting up down there," said A&T head coach Montè Ross. "Obviously, he is undersized, but we needed to get some buckets in the paint, and I thought he did a wonderful job of presenting himself, and the guys did a good job of finding him. And then he finished the plays when he was in there."
Despite Robinson's flurry of buckets, the Aggies never got any closer than eight after the one-man 7-0 run. The Aggies went 4:14 between Robinson's dunk and Robinson's layup with 3:26 remaining. Over that time, the Warriors outscored the Aggies 13-5 to push their lead to 83-68. A Stinson layup and three straight free throws from Devon Savage extended the lead to 20 with three minutes to play.
"We are just asking for the Aggies to maintain patience right now. We are going to find a way to turn this thing around, so just stick with us," said Ross. "But most importantly, have a great holiday and a Happy Thanksgiving to all."
Merrimack jumped out to a 4-0 lead and eventually grew that lead to 20-6 seven minutes into the game, putting the Aggies in a position of fighting uphill all evening. A Jalal McKie 3-pointer got the Aggies to within nine, 30-21, with 7:15 remaining in the first half, but the Warriors scored five straight points to push their lead to 14.
Nikolaos Chitikoudis got the lead down to single figures again with a jump shot, but the Warriors outscored A&T 5-1 to take a 44-31 lead into the locker room at the half. Shell, the second-leading assists man in the Coastal Athletic Association (CAA), finished with seven. Adam Clark led five Warriors in double figures with 19 points and six assists.
