GREENSBORO – Junior point Camian Shell created two crucial opportunities for his teammates in the final minute of North Carolina A&T's 53-50 men's basketball Coastal Athletic Association (CAA) win over the Campbell Fighting Camels Thursday night at Corbett Sports Center.
In a fierce defensive battle, sophomore wing Jahnathan Lamothe led the Aggies with 25 points and seven rebounds on 5-for-12 shooting from 3-point range. Ten days after losing a close game to the Camels in Buies Creek, NC, the Aggies put together some clutch shooting late on Thursday to improve to 6-22 overall and 2-13 in CAA play.
It marks the Aggies' second win in three games. Colby Duggan led the Camels with 18 points but shot 6-for-17 from the field and 1-for-8 from 3-point range to get there. Campbell dropped to 15-13 overall and 10-5 in league play. Duggan had 26 points on 11-for-17 shooting on Feb. 10 at Campbell.
"We wanted to make sure we were physical with him and make him work for every shot he got," said A&T head coach Monté Ross about defending the reigning CAA player of the week, Duggan. "There were a couple of possessions in there where he popped free. I told the guys I thought we got lost a couple of times, and he just missed some open ones.
We wanted to do a better job in the second half of making sure they didn't get open ones. Holding a kid like that who is a terrific scorer to 18 points but needed 17 shots to get it is a credit to those guys and their defense tonight."
Campbell didn't have a bad defensive effort either. The Camels held the Aggies to 18 points in the first half. Fortunately for the Aggies, the Camels only shot 34.4 percent in the first half and went into the locker room with only 25 points.
A&T became much more aggressive, going to the basket to open the second half. A&T's first five second-half field goals were layups. Four of those layups were Aggies driving to the basket and finishing.
But it was a 3-pointer from Lamothe to pull the Aggies to within one, 36-35, with eight minutes remaining in the game. Seventy seconds later, Duggan helped the Camels push their lead back to four, 41-37, on a drive to the basket.
However, Lamothe popped open again to knock down another three to cut Campbell's lead to one with 6 ½ minutes to play. A minute later, Lamothe netted another three to tie the game at 43-43.
"I had a feeling I was going to get it going," Lamothe said. "I missed three open layups. I missed an open three off the side of the backboard, but I knew it was going to start to eventually fall for me if I kept playing the right way and didn't force it. Coach put us in the right position to score easy baskets so I could get going, and once I saw it go through, it was good for all of us."
Lamothe gave A&T its first lead since the 11:25 mark of the first half with two free throws, putting the Aggies ahead 47-45 with 90 seconds remaining. Caleb Zurliene took the lead back for the Camels with an open three from the corner. It led to a 30-second timeout by the Camels.
The Aggies came out of the timeout with an excellent play that saw Shell find Lamothe open for a 3-pointer that he knocked down from the elbow to give the Aggies a 50-48 lead with 51 seconds remaining.
"I just did the easy part," said Lamothe. "Coach drew up a great play. Bryson (Ogletree) and Jalal (McKie) set a great screen for me to get (Campbell's Nolan) Dorsey off me, and then Cam made the play to get me open, and then I made the shot, which was a wide-open three. I did the easy part. They did the hard part of getting me open. Shot out to them. We did that together."
Camels guard Tasos Cook tied the game with a strong drive to the basket before Shell spotted another open Aggie, whipping a pass to Ogletree for a layup to give the Aggies a 52-50 advantage with 34 seconds to play. Cook could not answer, leading to a Nikolaos Chitikoudis rebound and a foul by Zurliene on McKie.
McKie made one of two free throws, leaving the contest as a one-possession game. But the Camels missed two threes in the final 15 seconds to secure the win for A&T.
"What I told the guys at halftime is we just have to keep playing defense and the shots are going to fall. I'm not worrying about that," said Ross. "Lo and behold, Jahn got hot in the second half and really carried us. The defense our guys played tonight against a team that is very, very difficult to guard was impressive. They're averaging 70-some-odd points. But our guys are just committed to defending. I couldn't be prouder for them for their effort and especially for the win."
Shell added 10 points, four assists and three steals. Lamothe played 40 minutes to get his totals.
"I've been playing 40 (minutes) all year, it feels like, so I'm kind of used to it," said Lamothe. "I just want to do anything to win. I wasn't tired down the stretch. My mind was just on winning. If I had to play 40, 45, 50, I was going to be out there to get a win."
