STONY BROOK, NY – A Lewis Walker attempt to hit the game-winning jump shot for the North Carolina A&T men's basketball team came up short on Saturday afternoon against the Stony Brook University (SBU) Seawolves, leading to an 81-80 Seawolves win over the Aggies at Stony Brook Arena.
It marked the third straight Coastal Athletic Association (CAA) game where A&T came close to winning. Unfortunately, the Aggies have also surrendered more than 80 points in all three, dropping to 7-7 overall and 0-3 in conference play. In A&T's CAA opener, UNC Wilmington got to 87 points thanks to 10-for-24 (.417) shooting from 3-point range, while Northeastern followed by scoring 85 points on 53.6 percent shooting.
SBU looked well on its way to 80 points after leading the Aggies 50-39 at halftime and shooting 54.5 percent from the field and 9-for-16 (.563) from 3-point range. A Tomas Valentiny dunk gave the Seawolves a 60-45 lead with 16:10 remaining in the game. Then the Aggies responded with the defensive effort they have sought since conference play began.
The Aggies outscored the Seawolves 16-4 over the next 5 ½ minutes, capped by an impressive post move by graduate center KJ Debrick to cut SBU's advantage to 64-61. Two Zamoku Weluche-Ume free throws tied the game at 69-69 with 7:43 to play.
"I thought in the second half we played with the defensive intensity we need to play with, and now we had to find a way for that to be the way we play for 40 minutes," said A&T head coach Monté Ross. "We haven't been able to put that together yet."
After Weluche-Ume's free throws, SBU scored the next five points and eventually built its lead to 79-72 on a Quin Goman 3-pointer with 3 ½ minutes to play. A&T responded by going 4-for-4 from the free throw line and getting an acrobatic driving layup from sophomore Dwayne Pierce to get to within one with 1:53 remaining.
Two Andrej Shoshkikj free throws pushed SBU's lead to three. Walker tried to respond with a drive to the basket, but had his layup come off the rim. Debrick followed the miss with a dunk to cut the lead to 81-80. A&T had a chance to take the lead after Shoshkikj missed his first shot from the field after making his first nine shots on his way to a game-high 27 points on 9-for-10 shooting from the floor, 5-for-5 shooting from 3-point range and 4-for-4 shooting from the free throw line.
Walker grabbed the rebound, but the Aggies turned it over on a bad pass. After another SBU missed field goal, Walker missed a jump shot, leading to a foul by A&T junior guard Trent Middleton, Jr. But SBU's Erik Pratt missed the front end of a one-and-one, setting up Walker's chance to win the game.
"Lewis is a competitor," said Ross. "I told him: 'Fortunately for you, you're going to be in this position a whole lot of times, so don't sweat it. Don't worry about it.' And we move on to the next play."
The Aggies shot 41.2 percent from the floor but benefited from a season-high 23 offensive rebounds. The Aggies outscored SBU 19-8 in second-chance points and out-rebounded the Seawolves 48-25. Debrick led the effort with his third career double-double and his second of the season, as he finished with 11 points and 10 rebounds, including five on the offensive end. He also had two huge blocked shots down the stretch.
"We have a three-headed monster with our bigs," said Ross, referring to Debrick, 6-foot-9 Will Felton, and 6-11 Amadou Doumbia. "Some nights it's going to be one guy. Some nights it's going to be another guy, and those guys understand that. Kudos to KJ for staying ready. Got in there this afternoon, and I thought he did a hecukva job. He made a lot of good effort plays to get to the offensive glass. Five offensive rebounds speak to his effort."
Walker led the Aggies with 16 points and eight rebounds, including three offensive rebounds. Pierce contributed 15 points and four assists, and Weluche-Ume added 14 points and six boards. Pratt added 23 points for SBU, who improved to 9-7 overall and 1-2 in CAA play.
"I thought we did some good things throughout the ballgame," said Ross. "Offensively, I thought we were decent. We didn't shoot the ball the way we normally do. But I thought our response in terms of getting to the offensive glass and the effort things were good."
The Aggies will go after their first conference win on Thursday when they return home to Corbett Sports Center to face Triad Piedmont rival Elon at 7 p.m.
