GREENSBORO– The largest HBCU in America, North Carolina A&T, defeated the oldest, Cheyney University of Pennsylvania, with ease Monday night in men's basketball at Corbett Sports Center, 107-55.
However, that was not the only victory in the building Monday night for A&T, which boasts a student population of more than 14,000. The other victory came from one of those more than 14,000 in, redshirt sophomore Will Felton.
After two years of rehabbing from two serious knee injuries, Felton finally made his way to a college basketball court and made the best of his first opportunity. Felton had a double-double by halftime in his collegiate debut, finishing with 17 points and 12 rebounds on 6-for-6 shooting. He split his rebounding evenly, posting six offensive and six defensive boards.
"You can't say enough about Big Will," said second-year A&T head coach Monté Ross. "I said to the guys on my staff, Will was bigger and stronger than those guys, but that doesn't always mean you dominate. He dominated because he was bigger and stronger than those guys."
Felton had 11 points and 10 rebounds by halftime, and the Aggies held a 55-24 lead going into the locker room. Standing as the fiercest force on the court is a far cry from where Felton has spent the previous two seasons. Before the start of the 2022-23 season, after Felton transferred from Arizona State, he sustained a season-ending injury in a preseason exhibition game.
After a successful rehab, Felton found himself back on the Corbett Sports Center basketball court in another preseason exhibition game before the 2023-24 season started. As he played his way toward a double-double performance, Felton again sustained a severe knee injury that forced him to miss the season.
But his long-awaited A&T debut was worth it for the big man who always seems to have a big smile. His first official action as an Aggie in a regular-season game was not as a rebounder or scorer. He dished off a nice pass to a cutting Jalal McKie to give the Aggies a 2-0 lead.
He then rebounded a miss from teammate Jahnathan Lamothe and completed a 3-point play to put the Aggies ahead 5-0. A Landon Glasper floater and a 3-pointer from Lamothe gave the Aggies a 10-0 lead within the game's first 30 seconds, and A&T never relented from there.
"I have been preparing for this for a long time," said Felton. "We practice and play against each other real hard, so I felt prepared for this because of how hard we go against each other. I just took that and used that same energy for when we play other teams."
Lamothe led the Aggies with 27 points, six rebounds, and four assists on 6-for-11 shooting from 3-point range. Junior point guard Camian Shell recorded his second career double-double, finishing with 11 points, 10 assists, and six rebounds. Two other Aggies scored in double figures as sophomore Bryan Ogletree had 17, and Glasper ended the night with 10.
But the overall night belonged to Felton, who, after the game, posed for pictures with family and loved ones with his first-ever collegiate box score in hand and another smile on his face.
"I was really happy and proud for Will in his first game in seven years?" said Ross as he turned and joked with his 6-foot-9 center. The Aggies will return to action on Thursday, November 7, when they travel to Winston-Salem to face the Wake Forest Demon Deacons from Lawrence Joel Coliseum. Tip-off is at 7 p.m.
