NEWARK, Del. – North Carolina A&T had to play without one of its top reserves in, Nikolaos Chitikoudis, and they played nine minutes of the game without leading scorer Landon Glasper.
On top of all that, the Delaware Blue Hens shot the basketball exceptionally well in the second half to earn a 90-71 win over the Aggies in Coastal Athletic Association (CAA) men's basketball Thursday night at the Bob Carpenter Center. The loss ends A&T's three-game winning streak, dropping the Aggies to 6-14 overall and 4-3 in conference play. The Blue Hens are 12-8 overall and 4-3 in league play.
"I told them I appreciate the fight, I appreciate what they are trying to do out there," said A&T head coach Monté Ross. "It didn't go our way tonight, but you have games like this. We have to respond, and we will respond in kind on Saturday."
Ross, who spent 10 seasons in Newark, Del., as the head coach of the Delaware Blue Hens from 2006-2106, returned to the Carpenter Center on Thursday along with associate head coach Jeff Rafferty, who held the same title under Ross at Delaware. Ross led the Blue Hens to the CAA regular-season title, tournament title and an NCAA appearance during the 2013-2014 season.
Before the game, the university welcomed Ross back with a still graphic featuring him on the LED video board. The PA announcer also recognized Rafferty before the game. The pleasantries stopped after that. The Blue Hens jumped out to a 15-7 lead over the first eight minutes of the contest.
Glasper responded with a 3-pointer after the under 12-minute media timeout, sparking a 10-4 spurt, culminating in a Jason Murphy dunk to cut the Blue Hens lead to 19-17. Delaware scored the next nine points, ending with Christian Ray racing downcourt and dumping off a pass to Niel Lanes on the break for a dunk and a 28-17 lead with 4:41 remaining in the first half.
The end of the run corresponded with Glasper leaving the game, which did not help matters as the Blue Hens went into the locker room at halftime with a 32-22 lead. When Glasper returned at the 16:43 mark of the second half, the Blue Hens had a 45-26 advantage. After two Camian Shell free throws cut that lead to 17, Lane netted a 3-pointer to give Delaware a comfortable 48-28 lead with 16 minutes to play.
A&T never got any closer than 15 the rest of the way. Delaware shot 58.8 percent from the field in the second half, the best second-half shooting percentage against A&T this season. Fifty-eight points are also the most second-half points the Aggies have surrendered this season.
Glasper did reach the 20-point plateau for the sixth straight game as he finished with 22 points on 5-for-10 shooting from 3-point range. Shell added 16 points on 5-for-5 shooting from the line, and Murphy reached double figures for the second time in his A&T career with 12 points and seven rebounds. Kyle Duke came off the bench to score 11. Jyare Davis and Lane led the Blue Hens with 22 points each. Gerald Drumgoole Jr. had 21 points.
"The matchup we anticipated having was (Nikolaos) to play Jyare Davis," said Ross. "When we found out Nikos couldn't play, that sort of shifted things. It became a tough matchup for us, with Nikos unable to go for us. We also lost (Landon) for a significant amount of time.
As much as we like to say next man up, we are not quite built like that yet. When someone of that magnitude goes down for us, it's hard for us to overcome. We'll get to that point, but we are not there right now."
Saturday will be another homecoming for Ross as the Philadelphia native will take his team to Philly to face the No. 1 team in the CAA, the Drexel Dragons, at 2 p.m. inside the Daskalakis Athletic Center.
