WEST LONG BRANCH, NJ – North Carolina A&T is going in the wrong direction during the wrong time of the season. The Aggies lost their second straight game and for the fourth time in five games as the Monmouth Hawks defeated the Aggies 85-71 Monday night at the OceanFirst Bank Center.
The Aggies, who dropped to 12-16 overall and 7-8 in the Colonial Athletic Association (CAA), could go either way at this point in the season.
As the CAA Men's Basketball Championship Tournament approaches in 2 ½ weeks, the Aggies could go from the top half of the conference to near the bottom depending on the results of their final three regular-season games. Meanwhile, the Hawks are a team who could leapfrog the Aggies in the standings after they won for the fifth time in six games to improve to 6-21 overall and 5-9 in the conference.
A&T sophomore guard Kam Woods hit all 12 free throw attempts to finish with 24 points. It marked his ninth 20-point-plus scoring game of the season and his first since scoring 29 against Towson on Jan. 19. Redshirt freshman Duncan Powell added 17 points and eight rebounds on 6-for-7 shooting from the line as the Aggies shot a season-best 91.3 percent (21-for-23) from the line.
It was a 3-pointer, however, from sophomore A&T guard Love Bettis that gave A&T a 23-21 lead with six minutes to play in the first half. But the Hawks responded by going on an 11-2 run to take a 32-25 lead. Monmouth did not relinquish the lead the rest of the way, but senior guard Demetric Horton did break up the run with a jumper. Horton's shot did not stop the Hawks from putting together another spurt.
The Hawks outscored the Aggies 8-2 over the final 2 ½ minutes of the half to take a 40-29 lead into the locker room at halftime.
Monmouth increased that lead to 13, 44-31, over the first 90 seconds of the second half before A&T regained its footing. Horton hit a three, followed by two Woods free throws to get the Aggies to within eight. Junior wing Marcus Watson then grabbed a rebound and got the Aggies into transition, where he found Powell on the break for a layup to make the Aggies deficit only six.
After Watson made a free throw, Horton became the next Aggies to find Powell on the break for a layup as A&T completed a 10-0 run to cut the Hawks' advantage to 44-41 with 16:06 remaining in the game. But the Aggies could not maintain the momentum. They connected on only one field over the next six minutes. Over the same span, Monmouth went 6-for-10 from the floor as they took a 57-45 lead with 10 minutes to play.
The Aggies never got the lead under double figures for the remainder of the game. Horton added 14 points on 6-for-10 shooting and 2-for-4 shooting from 3-point range. Klemen Vuga added 29 points on 10-for-16 shooting as the Hawks shot 50.8 percent from the floor. In sweeping the Aggies this season, the Hawks shot a combined 51.9 percent from the floor.
As the Aggies head to Towson on Saturday for a 4 p.m. tip against the Tigers, they face a situation where five of the seven teams below them in the standings have nine losses. The alternative is for the Aggies to stay in the top half of the CAA, where they have been able to stay despite their current downturn.
