GREENSBORO – There would be no payback for the Hampton Pirates on Thursday night. Two weeks ago in Hampton, Va., North Carolina A&T point guard Camian Shell hit a game-winning shot in the waning seconds to take down the Hampton Pirates.
On Thursday night at A&T's Corbett Sports Center, guard Jordan Nesbitt had a chance to do the same for Hampton. But his 3-point game-winning shot attempt went long as the Aggies came away with a 59-58 Coastal Athletic Association (CAA) win in front of a sellout Greek Night crowd at #ClubCorbett that created one of the best atmospheres that we will see in college basketball this season.
"That crowd. Man, oh, man. That was fun to be a part of. That atmosphere," said A&T head coach Monté Ross. "The students. The fans. Everyone turned out. I appreciate it. The atmosphere was electric. It propelled us. When I got here two hours before the game, and the line was wrapped around the building, I knew we were in for something special."
The game was pretty decent, too. A&T beat Hampton at Hampton on Jan. 15, 81-80, on Cam Shell's runner with 1.2 seconds remaining. On Thursday, the two teams went into the locker room tied at 25 before the Aggies scored the first 10 points of the second half, capped off by a Shell steal that resulted in a breakaway dunk for Nikolaos Chitikoudis.
But the Pirates slowly fought themselves back into the game, erasing the Aggies' once double-figure lead to take the lead 45-43 on a Kyrese Mullins layup with 10:20 remaining. The two teams would swap the lead seven times over the next five minutes until Aggies center Jason Murphy putback a Kyle Duke miss to give the Aggies a 56-54 lead. Chitikoudis then penetrated the lane, pivoted, and found a wide-open Jalal McKie for a 3-pointer and an A&T five-point lead with four minutes remaining.
Over the next three minutes, two Mullens layups and a missed jumper in the lane by Duke with 33 seconds to play set up the late-game theatrics. After the Pirates called timeout with 19.2 seconds remaining, the inbound pass out of the timeout went to Trista Maxwell. The ball eventually got into Nesbitt's hands. Duke refused to let Nesbitt get to his right, forcing the talented guard to attempt an off-balance 3-pointer he missed. A second later, the horn went off, ending the game and improving the Aggies to 7-15 overall and 5-4 in CAA play. Hampton dropped to 4-18 overall and 0-10 in conference play.
"I thought Kyle Duke's defense on Nesbitt was tremendous," said Ross. "He made him take a tough shot, which he is capable of making. But we will live with a contested tough shot rather than Kyle letting him to his right hand and get to the hole. We felt like we would play good-quality defense on the first shot. A lot of times in end-of-the-game situations, it's that rebound, it's that putback that gets you. We told the guys we have to make sure we all get in there and rebound the basketball."
The Aggies won despite playing their second straight game without guard Landon Glasper, the nation's 10th-leading scorer. In his absence, four Aggies scored in double figures, led by Murphy, who posted 13 points and seven rebounds on 6-for-11 shooting. Duke and McKie had 12 points apiece. Duke was 5-for-8 from the floor, and McKie added five rebounds.
Meanwhile, Shell ended the night with 10 points, seven assists and four rebounds. Chitikoudis added 10 rebounds and four steals. Mullen led Hampton with 18 points and eight rebounds.
"I try not to be the one who delves into hyperbole, but that was one of the most satisfying victories of my entire career because of the circumstances we were facing without Landon," said Ross. "We were going up against a team that has such an ability to score. One of our goals was to control the pace and play the game in the 60s. I thought we could play in the 50s, but I'm glad we did because that is more to our liking."
A&T is back at it on Saturday when they face Piedmont rival Elon from Corbett Sports Center at 4 p.m. The game will air live on CBS Sports Network.
