GREENSBORO – The North Carolina A&T men's basketball team shot 63.6 percent from the field Saturday afternoon in Coastal Athletic Association (CAA) play against the William & Mary Pride at Corbett Sports Center. The Aggies also made 35 field goals, with a season-high 21 of those baskets assisted.

In addition, they also scored 88 points and out-rebounded the Pride 35-22.  But they lost 91-88.

Despite the Aggies doing many of the same things they did a week ago to beat Elon by 20 in Elon, NC. But the difference between A&T's win at Elon and what happened on Saturday was that the Aggies turned the ball over 18 times, which led to a 20-2 advantage in points off turnovers for the Pride. Many of A&T's turnovers were live-ball turnovers, which led to many of WMU's 19 transition points.

"I look at this box score, and we had 21 assists, that has to be a season high for us," said A&T head coach Monté Ross. "One of the things we're doing a nice job of is moving the ball. But what got us tonight was those 18 turnovers because if you cut that in half with us shooting 64 percent from the field, you're looking at them scoring 18, 20 fewer points. Those turnovers really, really hurt us."

WMU took an 86-82 lead before Lewis Walker made two free throws, which preceded a humongous call in the game.

Guard Bryson Ogletree, who was the only player honored before the game as a part of Senior Day, grabbed the rebound from a Tunde Vahlberg Fassasi miss and passed it ahead to sophomore Zamoku Weluche-Ume, who sprinted down the floor and made a layup that most gathered at Corbett thought would turn into a 3-point play. Instead, the referee called Weluche-Ume for an offensive foul to keep the Pride ahead by two, 86-84, with two minutes to play.

The Aggies had another chance to tie the game, but they were called for a traveling violation. WMU's Reese Miller scored off that turnover to put the Pride in front by four before Walker took a pass from sophomore Dwayne Pierce to cut WMU's lead to 88-86 with 41.4 seconds remaining. Another huge call came with 14.4 seconds on the game clock and 2.7 seconds on the shot clock.

As Ogletree and Vahlberg Fassasi battled for position on an in-bounds play, Ogletree got whistled for a foul. That allowed Vahlberg Fassasi to go to the line and make two free throws to give WMU a 90-86 lead. Trent Middleton, Jr. cut the lead to 90-88 with a driving layup before Ogletree fouled Chase Lowe to stop the clock. Lowe made one of two free throws to give the Aggies a chance to tie the game, but Middleton turned the ball over to secure the win for the Pride.

"It's been a tough year because we've had so many crazy, crazy endings and finishes," Ross said. "But these guys have never wavered, and that's what I appreciate about them. They've never wavered. They've just kept going."

There were many crucial moments in the game, including in the first half when Ross got whistled for a technical foul with 1:42 remaining in the first half. According to Ross, he was complaining about the Pride being in the lane too long.

Regardless of what the exchange was, the Pride made a jump shot right before the technical foul, then made two free throws thanks to the tech, and all of those occurrences played a part in the Pride putting together a 12-3 spurt to take a 45-33 lead. WMU went into the locker room leading 46-37, which led Ross to make an obvious statement about his 2025-26 team.

"We're going to make a run," said Ross. "We're going to make a comeback."

A&T waited until it trailed by 13, 58-45, four minutes into the second half to make the rally. With 11 ½ minutes remaining in the game, redshirt freshman guard Lewis Walker's pull-up jumper gave the Aggies a 66-65 lead. WMU regained the lead and stretched it to five, 83-78, on a Tunde Vahlberg Fassasi 3-pointer with 4:49 remaining. Two Will Felton free throws and a monster baseline dunk from Bryson Ogletree cut WMU's lead to one before the Pride scored the next three points to take the 86-82 lead.

"We get down in games. It's not on purpose, but we get down, and our guys just keep pounding and keep fighting back," said Ross. "They just scored too many times on live-ball turnovers where they're scoring against no defense. That's tough because if you don't give them those runouts, it becomes a totally different story."

Walker led all scorers with 27 points on 11-for-16 shooting. He now has 520 points scored this season, marking the 24th time an Aggie has scored 500 or more points in a season. He is the 20th different player to score 500 or more points in a season. He needs 17 points to have a top-10 scoring season in A&T history.

Weluche-Ume, Felton and Middleton had 15 points apiece. Middleton secured his second career double-double with 10 rebounds. Miller led the Pride with 15 points as WMU improved to 18-11 overall and 9-8 in the CAA. The Aggies, who dropped to 11-17 overall and 4-13 in league play, will play their regular-season finale on Tuesday, March 3, at Campbell. The tip-off is scheduled for 7 p.m.