GREENSBORO – Remove the leading scorer, one of the best scorers in the conference, from any collegiate team in the country, and there will be side effects. Remove that same type of player from the eighth-youngest team in the nation, and there will be significant side effects.
The North Carolina A&T men's basketball team played its fifth straight game without Landon Glasper, a player averaging 21.3 points per game, and the schedule, coupled with his absence, is starting to be an unforgiving combination.
On Saturday at Corbett Sports Center, the Hofstra Pride got 19 points, 10 rebounds and four assists from Tyler Thomas in an 81-49 win. It marked the worst Coastal Athletic Association (CAA) loss in A&T's short 30-game history in the league.
A&T is 1-4 without Glasper on the floor. One of those losses came against Drexel, who is in a three-way tie for third in the conference. Another came against the College of Charleston, the No. 2 team in the CAA, and the other was to Hofstra, one of the teams tied for third. The schedule does not get any easier for the Aggies, who are playing without Glasper and veteran player Jeremy Robinson.
The Aggies travel to conference leader UNC Wilmington on Thursday before returning home on Saturday to play another team tied for third, the Delaware Blue Hens.
"If you take a leading scorer off any team in this country unless it is a really deep team, there are going to be some adjustments it has to make, said A&T head coach Monté Ross. "And still at that, it's going to take a little bit of a hit. You take the leading scorer off a young, inexperienced team like us; it's significant."
The Aggies have tried to fill in the gaps without Glasper. Reserve junior guard Ahmad Hamilton exceeded his career high in minutes played for the second straight game. After playing 11 minutes at Charleston on Thursday, Hamilton played 20 minutes against the Pride, scoring a career-high 11 points. Hamilton, a walk-on, reached double figures for the first time in his career.
"We are putting different people in the spots (Glasper) was in, unfairly," said Ross. "We are putting freshmen in those spots, and they're not ready to handle what he was able to handle. They will get there, but they're not there yet. But we had to throw them into the fire."
Hofstra made it tough for A&T to score from the beginning. The Aggies missed 11 of their first 12 field goal attempts. Darlinstone Dunbar hit a 10-footer from the elbow before netting a 3-pointer with 11 minutes to play to give the Pride a 16-2 lead. A&T never got the lead under double figures for the remainder of the game as the Pride took a 34-15 lead at halftime.
A&T came out of the locker room with a spark. Aggies sophomore guard Camian Shell hit a difficult jump shot before Dunbar scored on a layup. But Aggies junior guard Kyle Duke took a pass from the post from Jason Murphy and connected on a three before freshman Jalal McKie banked in a 3-pointer to cut Hofstra's lead to 36-23 90 seconds into the second half.
After Hofstra called a timeout to halt the Aggies run, the Pride outscored A&T 8-1 over the next two minutes to take a 44-24 lead. The Aggies never threatened the Pride from there. Shell led the Aggies with 14 points on 8-for-8 shooting from the free throw line. Nikolaos Chitikoudis added eight points and eight rebounds.
"We have to go back to the drawing board and learn from it," said Ross. "We will pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and get better for the next one."
