GREENSBORO -- North Carolina A&T's men's basketball team stuck around long enough but couldn't come through with breakthrough plays down the stretch against Monmouth on Thursday night at Corbett Sports Center.
So a 72-63 setback was another difficult-to-digest result.
"I've never had a team that is consistently that close in every game," A&T coach Monté Ross said. "We just had some bugaboos that we have to take care of. We hit that wall."
Jahnathan Lamothe recorded his fourth double-double of the season, scoring 13 of his 22 points in the first half to go with 12 rebounds for the Aggies (4-15, 0-6 Coastal Athletic Association). He drained five of the team's six 3-point baskets. Meanwhile, Ryan Forrest racked up 19 points and a team-high four assists.
The Aggies were without starting power forward Nikolaos Chitikoudis, who's out indefinitely with a lower-body injury. Ross stressed it was not season-ending.
Abdi Bashir Jr., the leading scorer in the CAA, led the Hawks with 21 points. Madison Durr's 16 points and Jaret Valencia's helped the Hawks improve to 5-13 overall and 3-2 in conference play.
A&T never led in the game, but the Aggies sure made it entertaining.
Bryson Ogletree's putback dunk sparked the Aggies, who soon after that drew within 53-52. A Lamothe 3-pointer and Forrest's free throw with 9:36 remaining made it 56-56. The Aggies never got all the way over the hump, however.
"We just weren't able to capitalize on those possessions when we had the ball trying to take the lead," Ross said.
Redshirt freshman Efstratios Kalliontzis, who was Chitikoudis' replacement in the starting lineup, gave the Aggies eight points and six rebounds across nearly 24 minutes. A&T held its own on the boards. Monmouth had a 41-40 rebounding edge.
"We ask every night to gang rebound," Ross said. "Just get everybody in there rebounding the basketball. It has to be a collective effort with losing such a special rebounder like Nikolaos."
For the first 18 games, Chitikoudis averaged 9.8 points and 9.2 rebounds per game. He was the CAA's leading rebounder coming into the game. Ogletree's eight rebounds were a boost off the bench Thursday night.
Typically, 10 turnovers might not seem extreme, but Ross said the Aggies can't afford miscues of any degree given the small margin for error.
A&T's 19-for-31 shooting on free throws proved costly. The Hawks made 20 of 25 at the foul line.
A&T went through a dry spell in the first half, going 4½ minutes without scoring as its deficit grew from 18-14 to 27-14. Lamothe's third 3-pointer ended the drought and gave him nine points at the time.
What was once a 13-point hole was a 45-36 deficit by halftime.
"We're trying to learn how not to lose before we get to how to win," Ross said. "A lot of things that are happening to us are self-inflicted. The way that we give ourselves a chance every night is that we play hard, and we try to play good defense and leave everything out there for 40 minutes every night."
The Aggies are back in action at 9 p.m. Monday (CBS Sports Network) against Hampton on MLK Day in a rematch from an early December loss.
