WINSTON-SALEM, NC – Normally, North Carolina A&T head men's basketball coach Monté Ross would be thrilled to only trail by six points to the Wake Forest Demon Deacons, who are predicted to finish third behind Duke and North Carolina.
But that was not the case on Thursday night at Lawrence Joel Coliseum. The Aggies played well enough to have the halftime lead, but missed golden opportunities sent the Aggies into the locker room with a deficit before Wake opened the second half strong to knock off the Aggies 80-64.
The Aggies dropped to 1-1 on the season despite junior Landon Glasper's 23 points, which included him making seven 3-pointers. Division I transfer Ryan Forrest made his A&T debut on Thursday, scoring 10 points off the bench. The Aggies trailed 12-9 after the game's first four minutes.
A&T caught fire over the next five minutes. The Aggies scored seven straight points coming out of the first media timeout, which included a 3-pointer from Glasper. A Tre'Von Spillers dunk interrupted the Aggies' run before Forrest connected on a three and a jumper to give the Aggies a 21-14 lead.
Wake put together a 9-0 spurt to reclaim the lead before Forrest's turnaround jump shot from the baseline tied the game at 23-23 with 8:15 remaining in the first half. Ty-Laur Johnson gave the Deacs the lead back before a Glasper three helped the Aggies regain the lead. After Johnson turned the ball over, Glasper raced down the floor and pulled up for a fastbreak three he netted, leading to the Demon Deacs calling timeout, trailing 29-25 with seven minutes remaining.
From there, for whatever reason, the Aggies had trouble scoring throughout the remainder of the game. A&T went 0-for-4 from the floor over the next 3 ½ minutes while the Deacs scored seven straight points to take a 32-29 lead. Sophomore Jahnathan Lamothe cut the lead to one on a layup before Omaha Biliew's dunk and Juke Harris's three increased Wake's lead to 37-31 with 1:33 remaining.
After two free throws from junior A&T point guard Camian Shell, the Deacs ended the half with a Harris jumper to take the six-point lead that displeased Ross.
"Riding the bus here from Greensboro, if you would have told me that we were going to be down six at halftime, I would have been ecstatic," said Ross. "But seeing how the first half played out, being down six, I was ticked off because we could have played much better, and we should have had the lead.
But that speaks to the character of this group that we have. We're still coming together. We're still a work in progress. For a first night out against a top-three ACC team, I give our guys a lot of credit in this fight and how they played tonight."
Wake opened the second half on a 10-0 run to take a 49-33 lead, while A&T's first three possessions of the second half included two missed shots and a turnover. The Deacs eventually grew their lead to 20, 63-43, with 10 ½ minutes remaining. A&T outscored the Deacs 14-6 over the next five minutes to get to within 12. A Glasper three got the Aggies to within 11, 71-60, with 4:40 remaining, but the Aggies could not get any closer.
"One of the things that happened was that we couldn't hit a shot in the second half," said Ross. "And then, to their credit, they made some shots. They took from six to 16, where they came down and hit a big three in transition. That turned the game in their favor."
After its win over Coppin State, Wake improved to 2-0 on the season behind 15 points and 16 rebounds from Spillers. A&T will head to Washington, D.C., to face George Washington on Tuesday, November 12 at 7 p.m.
