The numbers didn't add up for North Carolina A&T's men's basketball team Saturday afternoon. By the end, most of those numbers were frightening for the Aggies. The second-half shooting was as frigid as the outside temperatures in a 68-59 loss to Drexel at Corbett Sports Center in a Coastal Athletic Association (CAA) contest that dropped the Aggies to 0-3 in league play. They are 4-12 overall.

"As much as we lean on our defense and want to be a good defensive team, you do have to score the basketball," A&T coach Monté Ross said. 
The dry spells were too much to overcome.

"These numbers we put up from the field are not lending to winning a whole lot of basketball games," Ross said. "So we'll go back to the drawing board."

A&T's final shooting totals were 30.6 percent (19-for-62), including 2-for-15 from 3-point range. Ryan Forrest and Landon Glasper scored 13 points, and Nikolas Chitikoudis racked up 12 points and 12 rebounds for the Aggies (4-12, 0-3 Coastal Athletic Association). Chitikoudis's performance gave him his fourth double-double of the season and the sixth of his career. 

Drexel's Yame Butler poured in 24 points to lead the Dragons to a 9-6 record overall and a 1-1 mark in the CAA, snapping a two-game losing streak. The Dragons shot 52 percent in the second half, with several clutch shots when the Aggies threatened to make a move.

A&T fell into a 54-47 hole with less than 7½ minutes left. The deficit grew to 10 points by the four-minute mark. Still within range, the Aggies forced a couple of turnovers in the Drexel backcourt but came up mostly empty, even though it once led to a free throw by Forrest.

"We had a couple of opportunities like that," Ross said. "Especially when you're struggling, you need a layup or two to hopefully get you going."

The Aggies went 1-for-13 from the field during a late-game stretch before Glasper's 3-pointer closed the gap to 66-59 with 46 seconds left.

"The last two ball games really leaning on our defense," Ross said. "We held our last two opponents under 40 percent field-goal shooting. Today, we did a nice job in the first half. In the second half, we didn't do as well of a job."

But Ross said Drexel's 44.1-percent shooting for the game would be tolerable in many situations. In the first half, Chitikoudis was called for a foul in the backcourt, and then, before play resumed, Chitikoudis and Drexel's Jason Drake were hit with technical fouls. Therefore, with 8:51 to play in the half, the CAA's leading rebounder was on the A&T bench with two fouls. Despite his absence, the Aggies scored the final six points of the half to pull within 34-33 at the break. That was excellent news for A&T, considering it shot 1-for-9 on 3-pointers compared to Drexel's 5-for-15.

"I felt like the offense was stagnant," Ross said. "We weren't moving sharply, so we did a couple of things and got some movement, but still couldn't put that ball in the basket."

The Aggies had only seven assists because of the shooting woes, with three delivered by Jahnathan Lamothe.

"We saw some signs, we saw some things that were good for us," Ross said. "Again, you just got to put that ball in the hoop."

The Aggies are home again at 7 p.m. Thursday against Delaware, but for their fifth straight home game, the team will be without the assistance of the A&T students, who will still be away enjoying their holiday break.