GREENSBORO – The College of Charleston Cougars scored the game's first 12 points against the North Carolina A&T men's basketball team Thursday night. At one point, the Cougars had a 23-point second-half lead over the Aggies.
Yet, once again, the never-give-up-the-fight Aggies found a way to make the game competitive before falling to Charleston in Coastal Athletic Association (CAA) action, 74-61, in front of a packed Corbett Sports Center crowd celebrating Classes vs. Classes among the A&T student body.
A&T dropped to 10-15 overall and 3-11 in league play despite redshirt freshman
Lewis Walker posting 16 points, five rebounds and three assists on 5-for-9 shooting from the field and 6-for-7 shooting from the line. Sophomore
Dwayne Pierce added 13 points and four assists, and junior
Mujahiid Burton came off the bench to score 11.
Despite falling behind 12-0, the Aggies were back to within six at 29-23 with 7 ½ minutes remaining in the first half on a
Zamoku Weluche-Ume putback. The Aggies found themselves down six again, 32-26, on a
KJ Debrick putback with 3:17 remaining in the half before the Cougars went on a 9-0 run to end the first half, highlighted by Chris Davis, Jr.'s 3-pointer at the first half buzzer to give Charleston a 41-26 lead.
Charleston was 8-for-15 (.533) from 3-point range in the first half.
"What we told the guys at halftime was that they were going to regress," said A&T head coach Monté Ross. "That's just the way basketball goes. And they did, they shot 18 percent (from three) in the second half, which allowed us to get back into the game. I'm disappointed we weren't able to seize the moment when we got back into the game."
It looked as if that moment would never come. An and-1 by Charleston's Jaxon Prunty gave the Cougars a 53-30 lead five minutes into the second half. The Aggies then found a spark plug in the form of Burton. He hit a 3-pointer following Prunty's and-1 to put the Aggies down 20. Burton's 3-pointer with 13:01 remaining put the Aggies down by 19 at 58-39.
"Whenever you can shoot the basketball, you create situations for others out there on the court, as well as yourself," Ross said about Burton. "He's fearless. He doesn't mind missing one because he's going to come right back and shoot the next one."
Burton hit another three with 12:15 remaining, which was followed by a Pierce 3-pointer that sent the Corbett crowd into a frenzy. Pierce kept the momentum going by scooping up a loose ball and passing it ahead to Burton for a fastbreak layup that sliced Charleston's lead to 58-47, leading to a Cougars timeout.
"I don't want to get down like that, but again that's the ebb and flow of basketball," said Ross. "We don't panic when we get down like that."
A&T actually started pushing the panic button toward Charleston. Redshirt sophomore
Will Felton took a Pierce pass from his feet to the basket to get A&T's deficit to single digits. Pierce made things more interesting by netting another three before Weluche-Ume took the ball from Charleston's Jlynn Counter and raced down the floor for an uncontested layup to bring the Aggies to within four, 58-54, with eight minutes to play.
"Our guys don't give up. We keep fighting," said Ross. "But that's our M.O. We do that every game. We're going to fight until the clock is zero. Tonight, we weren't able to get over the hump in the midst of us fighting."
With Charleston on its heels, A&T let some opportunities get away. After Weluche-Ume's fastbreak bucket, the Cougars scored the next three points. Walker responded with a step-back baseline jumper before Charleston's Colby Duggan completed an and-1 to put the Cougars ahead 64-56. A Connor Hickman steal led to Pierce fouling him. Hickman made both free throws to push Charleston's lead to 10 with 5:40 to play.
A&T had a chance to get back to within single digits, but
Trent Middleton, Jr. missed a transition layup, which turned into Counter scoring on a driving layup to give Charleston a 68-56 lead with 4 ½ minutes remaining. The Aggies never got any closer than 10 the rest of the way.
"We didn't seize the moment," said Ross. "We've had moments to seize. I would probably rather us not have moments to seize, versus going out and getting it done from the start. But this young group never ceases to amaze me. They just keep fighting."
Counter led the Cougars with 16 points and seven assists, helping the Cougars improve to 18-10 overall and 11-4 in CAA play. A&T's fight continues Saturday when they travel down the road to face local CAA rival Elon at 7 p.m. from the Schar Center.
