WASHINGTON, DC – An adversity-filled 2024-25 season for the North Carolina A&T men's basketball team ended on Friday in the first round of the 2025 Coastal Athletic Association (CAA) Men's Basketball Championship Tournament at CareFirst Arena.

Hofstra, the No. 11 seed, got 23 points and 10 rebounds from German Plotnikov to defeat the 14th-seeded Aggies 77-55 and will advance to face sixth-seeded Monmouth at 8:30 p.m. on Saturday. Plotnikov made 7 of 11 from 3-point range, and the Pride was 15-for-36 for the game.

For the Aggies, their adversities followed them into the conference tournament. Only eight players were in uniform on Friday, and they had to play without starting point Camian Shell. Sophomore Jahnathan Lamothe had his ninth 20-point performance of the season on Friday, finishing with 21 points.

Freshman Efstratios Kalliontzis had a career game, scoring a career-high 13 and tying a career-high with nine rebounds.

"We ran up against some challenging situations this year, but our guys fought. I'm really proud of how they left it all out there every single game," said A&T head coach Monté Ross. "We had to pivot with 10 games left in the season, and they did it. We were able to rumble and play in some close games. We were able to win some games."

Hofstra took a 12-2 lead over the game's first 7 ½ minutes before the Aggies could compose themselves and cut the Pride's lead to 17-13 on a Jalal McKie 3-pointer with 6 ½ minutes remaining in the first half. But that would be as close as the Aggies would get the rest of the evening.

The Pride went on a 13-2 run capped by an Eric Parnell 3-pointer, giving Hofstra a 30-15 lead with four minutes remaining in the first half. Hofstra's Michael Graham closed the first half with a jump shot to give the Pride a 39-19 lead at the half.

Hofstra's lead grew to as many as 32 in the second half. The Pride, who improved to 15-17 overall, has defeated the Aggies by more than 20 points in four of the five games they have played in series history.

A&T finished 7-25 overall. The Aggies went 3-15 in CAA play.

"I told the guys, 'The down times that you have right now just makes when we do what we're going to do that much sweeter."