ELON, NC – It took three defensive stops in the final 21.6 seconds, but the North Carolina A&T men's basketball team has its first Coastal Athletic Association (CAA) win of the 2024-25 season with a 60-59 triumph over the Elon Phoenix Thursday night at the Schar Center.
The Aggies, who have endured injuries and reduced personnel, ended an 11-game losing streak to improve to 5-21 overall and 1-12 in the conference. The sophomore combination of Nikolaos Chitikoudis and Jahnathan Lamothe continued to prosper.
Lamothe finished with 21 points, six rebounds and five steals on 6-for-8 shooting from the foul line. Chitikoudis posted 19 points and nine rebounds.
"Coach has kept us together," said Lamothe. "As long as we have five guys out there, we've got a chance to win the game. We've stayed together as a team and fought and fought, and tonight, we got the dub."
A&T has had some close calls against some excellent teams lately. Last Thursday at the College of Charleston, the Aggies missed a 3-pointer at the buzzer that would have sent the game into overtime against the Cougars. On Monday, the Aggies led most of the game at Campbell before losing 66-62.
In their showdown against Triad Piedmont rival Elon, the Aggies trailed 57-51 with 3 ½ minutes remaining in the game. But the Aggies tied the game over the next 2 ½ minutes, starting with freshman center Efstratios Kalliontzis following a miss from sophomore teammate Bryson Ogletree to bring the Aggies to within four.
Kalliontzis then rolled to the basket and took an excellent pass from Chitikoudis, leaving 7-foot-5 Elon center Matthew Van Komen behind. Van Komen tried to recover but was called for goaltending, cutting the Phoenix lead to two. Lamothe then muscled the ball away from Elon's Sam Sherry and raced to the other end for a transition layup to tie the game at 57. It forced the Phoenix to call a timeout.
Elon guard TJ Simpkins got into the lane out of the timeout and hit a one-handed floater to give Elon the lead back, leading to an A&T timeout. The Aggies used a two-man game between sophomore point guard Camian Shell and Lamothe before Shell dropped the ball off to Lamothe for a 3-point attempt.
Lamothe, who was 0-for-5 from 3-point range before the attempt, netted the three to give the Aggies a 60-59 lead with 21.6 seconds remaining.
"I was 0-for-5 or 0-for-6 from three, but coach still believed in me to make that shot," said Lamothe. "I told Cam, if I get it, I'm going to make it. Before the game, we said all we needed was one. We went to Charleston and fought hard. In the last game, we fought hard.
We knew that our breakthrough was coming. We just stayed together because we knew we would get one eventually. We'll enjoy this tonight, but tomorrow, it's back to work."
After Lamothe's huge make, TK Simpkins missed a jump shot that landed in Lamothe's arms. TK Simpkins fouled Lamothe, but the Aggies were not yet in the bonus, forcing the Aggies to inbound the basketball with 11.9 seconds to play.
A&T got the ball in, but a jump ball was called with the arrow giving the Aggies possession. Once again, the Aggies had the task of inbounding the basketball. The Aggies could not get the ball in this time and were whistled for a five-second violation. The turnover gave the Phoenix the ball back with seven seconds remaining.
A&T's defense forced another jump ball with 0.5 seconds remaining. Therefore, the Phoenix did not get a shot off, leading to the Aggies first conference win.
"Interestingly enough, as I look at the stat sheet, we didn't play particularly well," said A&T head coach Monté Ross. "We fought hard. I thought our defense was outstanding, especially in the end. Our guys laid everything out there on the line, but that's what they've been doing for however many weeks now.
We just haven't been able to see the fruits of our labor. I'm excited about the display of how tough and gritty they were for 40 minutes."
Shell had a brilliant second half, scoring all 10 points over the final 20 minutes. He also had eight rebounds, five assists and only one turnover. TJ Simpkins led the Phoenix with 14 points as the Phoenix dropped to 15-11 overall and 6-7 in league play.
"We are going to rumble for 40 minutes," said Ross. "They knocked us down for the first four minutes, but guess what? We're going to rumble you again for the next 36 minutes. That's this team's mentality, and that's why I really enjoy coaching them."
The Aggies will get their rematch against Charleston on Saturday when the two teams tip at 2 p.m. from Corbett Sports Center.
