GREENSBORO – All is new for the North Carolina A&T men's basketball team now that Coastal Athletic Association (CAA) play has started.
That was evident Thursday night during the Aggies 76-62 win over the Campbell Fighting Camels in their conference opener at Corbett Sports Center. The issues that hampered the Aggies (3-11, 1-0 CAA) during the non-conference portion of their schedule were non-existent on Thursday night.
"We put our team in an almost impossible position with the schedule we played," said A&T head coach Monté Ross. "It was very difficult. We could have gone out and played three Division III teams, but I didn't have the luxury with the new group that we had to play a Division III team, win by 60, and not be able to use that game as a barometer of what we needed to work on. We sacrificed some wins by playing such a difficult schedule, but it was all in preparation for CAA play."
During their demanding 13-game non-conference schedule, the Aggies held the lead for a combined 54 minutes and 34 seconds, with their longest lead of the non-conference season lasting 13:44 at Coastal Carolina on Dec. 21. But on Thursday, the Aggies held the lead for 33:18 and played well with the lead throughout the second half.
A&T had a minus-12 rebounding margin in non-conference play. The Aggies out-rebounded the Camels 40-28. In addition, the Aggies shot 39.6 percent leading into Thursday's game but shot 47.5 percent against the Camels. Finally, A&T's top-flight opponents combined to shoot 51.9 percent against A&T. The Aggies held Campbell to 34 percent shooting.
"We bought into playing defense tonight for 40 minutes," said A&T guard Landon Glasper, who led the Aggies with 19 points, seven rebounds and three assists. "We really haven't done that all year. But everyone bought into offense and defense for 40 minutes, which made the difference."
Campbell jumped out to a 20-13 lead on an Alex Kotov 3-pointer 7 1/2 minutes into the game. It led to Ross calling a 30-second timeout. The timeout made a difference because the Camels went nine minutes without scoring, allowing the Aggies to build a 31-20 after two Camian Shell free throws.
Campbell went 11 minutes without a field goal following Kotov's three but trailed only by seven, 31-24, after Laurynas Vaistaras hit a baseline jumper with 1:23 to play in the first half. A&T forward Jeremy Robinson answered with a putback before a Gediminas Mokseckas free throw sent the Camels into the locker room trailing 33-25.
A&T grew its lead to 21 twice in the second half, the second time coming on a Nikolaos Chitikoudis turnaround jumper to give A&T a 59-38 lead with 10 minutes remaining. The Aggies then did an adequate job of keeping the ball out of Campbell's possession by running the shot clock down to almost zero before taking shots. The offensive strategy led to two shot-clock violations, but it did way more good than bad. Campbell never got any closer than 14 after Chitikoudis' basket.
"At one point, I told the guys, 'We're not looking for style points. We're looking to get a W,'" said Ross. "One of the ways you can do that against a team like that, which is a set team and runs a pattern offense, is to take the shot clock down because they don't score the ball quickly. I told them, 'Even if we run it all the way down and get a heave at the end of the shot clock, I'm cool with that.'"
Jason Murphy and Shell joined Glasper in scoring in double figures. Murphy had 10 points, 10 rebounds, and three blocks to secure his 11th career double-double and his first an Aggie. Shell finished with 18 points, five assists and one steal on 6-for-12 shooting. Anthony Dell'Orso led the Camels with 24 points and 10 rebounds.
"We have great momentum. We're in first place," said Murphy. "We are in a tie for first place, but we're in first place. "Obviously, we have a quick turnaround before we go to Elon, so our attention will immediately turn to them."
A new season within a season has truly begun.
