WEST LONG BRANCH, NJ – North Carolina A&T men's basketball played without another critical player Saturday afternoon, and it partly led to the Aggies' 83-67 loss to the Monmouth Hawks at Ocean First Bank Center.
After getting star guard Landon Glasper back in the lineup on Thursday after he sat out a lengthy amount of time with an injury and witnessing the return of 6-foot-9 forward Nikolaos Chitikoudis on Thursday after he missed two games with an injury, floor leader Camian Shell left Thursday's game early with an injury. That moment led to the Aggies playing without their leading assist man and second-leading scorer.
Injuries have certainly impacted what was once a promising conference season, where the Aggies stood 5-4. But the Aggies have lost seven straight, dropping to 7-22 overall and 5-11 in the Coastal Athletic Association (CAA). The Aggies are on the verge of having to win five games in five days to win the CAA tournament as a bottom-four seed at the Entertainment & Sports Arena in Washington, D.C., March 8-12.
Monmouth is 16-13 overall and 9-7 in CAA play. The Aggies are tied for 11th place with Elon in the standings. The Phoenix defeated the Aggies twice this season, which puts A&T as the No. 12 seed currently with two regular-season games remaining. In addition to all the other injuries, graduate forward Jeremy Robinson last played on Feb. 1.
"We must keep getting stronger and keep getting better," said A&T head coach Monté Ross. "We need to get Cam back, hopefully. Hopefully, these experiences we are having now will help us down the line when we get everybody back. Tonight, I'm sure there was good to take out of it. It is just hard to find right now."
A&T did have another solid first half despite playing shorthanded. A Glasper three and a jump shot from freshman Jalal McKie gave the Aggies an 18-12 lead eight minutes into the game. A lengthy 12-0 run eliminated that lead before A&T responded with a 3-pointer from McKie and two free throws from Glasper to cut the Hawks' advantage to 24-23 with six minutes to play in the first half.
Monmouth outscored A&T 14-4 over the next 5 ½ minutes to take a 38-27 lead. But Glasper was fouled while attempting a 3-point shot, which sent him to the line in the waning seconds of the first half. Glasper, who went 14-for-15 from the line, netted all three free throws to cut Monmouth's lead to eight. But Monmouth's Xander Rice quickly erased those three free throws, hitting a buzzer-beater three to send the Hawks into the locker room, leading 41-30.
The Aggies did get Monmouth's lead under 10, 42-33, to open the second half on a McKie 3-pointer. Monmouth scored four straight points before a Glasper three knocked the lead down to 10. But the Hawks scored five consecutive points to respond to Glasper's three and grew their lead to 22, 75-53, with five minutes to play.
"We had some good looks in that first half that we could not convert on," said Ross. "Defensively, we were not sharp to start the game, and we had a few turnovers that we normally don't have, which led to runouts. I thought there were times when we executed the way we wanted. But what we needed to do, we just weren't able to do."
Glasper led the Aggies with 27 points. McKie finished with 19 points on 6-for-11 shooting from the field and 4-for-6 from 3-point range. Chitikoudis finished with six points, 11 rebounds and three blocked shots.
The Aggies return home for Senior Night at Corbett Sports Center on Thursday at 7 p.m. Their opponent will be the Towson Tigers. A&T ends the regular season on the road against the Campbell Fighting Camels on Saturday, March 2 at 4 p.m.
