GREENSBORO – Timely stops and timely made shots did not go in North Carolina A&T's favor in the clutch Tuesday night at Corbett Sports Center. As a result, the Coastal Carolina Chanticleers earned a 73-68 non-conference men's basketball win.
Junior Landon Glasper scored a season-high 29 points and tied a career-high with eight rebounds, but the Aggies lost their seventh straight to fall to 3-9 overall. Nikolaos Chitikoudis recorded his second double-double of the season with 13 points and 10 rebounds. It marked the third straight game an Aggie has secured a double-double.
The Chanticleers improved to 6-5 and defeated the Aggies for the first time in five tries after shooting 5-for-6 from the field over the game's final 5 ½ minutes.
"We pride ourselves on the defensive side of the basketball," said A&T head coach Monté Ross. "We needed to get stops. We just weren't able to get them. Credit to Coastal. I thought they made some big shots down the stretch, and we couldn't keep them from making those shots."
A&T had trouble making shots in the first half, shooting 29 percent. Plus, they gave up an open jump shot at the buzzer to RaSheed Jones to give Coastal a 37-27 halftime lead.
Glasper got hot coming out of the break, scoring nine of the Aggies first 11 points to cut Coastal's lead to 46-42 with 13:19 remaining in the game. Over the next seven minutes, the Aggies got the deficit down to one, 55-54, on a pull-up jumper by junior Camian Shell.
Chitikoudis then briefly gave the Aggies the lead as he caught the reflection from a blocked shot and scored on a layup with 5 ½ minutes remaining. That would be the last lead of the game for the Aggies. The Chanticleers scored the next four points before a Glasper three tied the game at 59-59 with 3:09 to play.
Coastal responded with a 7-0 run with five points from Jones, including an enormous 3-pointer with 1:13 to play to give the Chanticleers a 66-59 advantage. Jones led the Chanticleers with 20 points and six rebounds on 7-for-12 shooting.
"We wanted to make him work everything he got," Ross said about Jones. "I thought we did a great job in the first half. In the second half, he got going. He made a tough shot that we defended pretty good, but he got free for a layup that put them up one. Then he made a big three from the top."
A&T shot 47 percent in the second half, but Coastal shot 50 percent to counter. Coastal also outscored A&T 36-20 in the paint.
Jahnathan Lamothe and Shell had 10 points apiece for A&T. A&T returns to action on Saturday as they travel to Fayetteville, Ark., the hometown of Glasper and the home state of sophomore guard Ryan Forrest to face the Arkansas Razorbacks at 2:30 p.m. EST from Bud Walton Arena.
