CHARLESTON, SC – North Carolina A&T men's basketball got off to a great start against the favored College of Charleston Cougars on Thursday night. But a strange occurrence in the second half seemed to somehow derail the Aggies in a 78-62 loss to Charleston at TD Arena.
The loss is the Aggies' third straight, dropping them to 9-13 overall and 2-9 in the Coastal Athletic Association (CAA). Meanwhile, Charleston won its fifth straight and benefitted from a UNC Wilmington loss to take over first place in the CAA at 9-2. The Cougars are 16-8 overall.
Freshman
Lewis Walker moved one step closer to breaking a record set by one of the program's most storied players, Joe Binion. During the 1980-81 season, Binion, the Aggies' all-time leading scorer, posted 418 points as a freshman. On Friday, Walker played for 40 minutes, posting 23 points and 10 rebounds for his second double-double of the season.
His 23 points give him 404 on the season, putting him 15 points shy of breaking Binion's single-season freshman scoring record. Binion is an A&T Sports Hall of Famer. It was Walker's 3-pointer 6 ½ minutes into the game that gave the Aggies a 14-9 lead. The Cougars scored the next 11 points, capped off by a Colby Duggan 3-pointer, before Walker answered again with a three of his own to bring the Aggies to within three at 20-17 with 8:14 remaining in the first half. Walker's three sparked a 4 ½-minute spurt in which the Aggies outscored the Cougars 15-5, capped off with Walker giving the Aggies the lead at 27-25 on a pull-up jumper and junior Trent Walker adding two free throws to extend A&T's lead to four.
After graduate center
KJ Debrick kept the lead at four, 31-27, the Cougars produced a 7-0 run to take a 34-31 lead with two minutes remaining in the first half. A&T never led again and trailed 41-37 at halftime thanks to a Middleton layup right before the buzzer. The game remained competitive after the half, as a Walker jump shot brought the Aggies to within six, 57-51, with 12:23 remaining in the game.
But following the media timeout, both A&T head coach Monté Ross and Charleston head coach Chris Mack confronted each other near the scorer's table at halfcourt over an issue that mainly went unexplained by the officials. Both men were assessed a technical foul. Ross indicated that he was coming to the defense of one of his players over something that happened on the court.
Charleston somehow gained momentum after the brief disagreement between the coaches, scoring nine straight points to take a 66-51 lead with seven minutes to play. Junior guard
Mujahiid Burton did end the run with a 3-pointer, but the Aggies were never able to get within single digits again after Charleston's 9-0 run. Charlston took advantage of 18 A&T turnovers to outscore the Aggies 23-9 in points off turnovers. The Cougars also had a 44-16 advantage in points in the paint. Christian Reeves and Jlynn Counter led the Cougars with 16 points apiece.
Middleton added 12 points and seven rebounds for an A&T team that will get to play a home game on Saturday after three straight games on the road. The Aggies will face the Campbell Fighting Camels in a 2 p.m. contest from Corbett Sports Center.
"We've got a game on Saturday, so we have to focus in on the things we didn't do tonight," said Ross. "We've got to get better at tomorrow's practice for Saturday's game."
