WASHINGTON, DC – Twelfth-seeded North Carolina A&T let some of its youth show on Friday afternoon in what was the first postseason Division I action for many of the Aggies' players.
As a result, the Aggies got eliminated from the 2026 Air Force Reserve Coastal Athletic Association (CAA) Men's Basketball Championship Tournament on Friday by the No. 13 seed Northeastern Huskies, 88-72, at FirstCare Arena. The Aggies finish the season 11-19 overall. They are 0-4 in the CAA tournament since joining the league prior to the 2022-23 season.
"I thought we had a quality practice leading up to tonight," said A&T head coach Monté Ross. "Unfortunately, it didn't translate."
Redshirt freshman Lewis Walker, a third-team All-CAA selection and a member of the CAA's All-Rookie Team, finished with 17 points and five rebounds on 13-for-14 shooting after getting shut out in the first half. Walker finishes the season with 548 points. That is the 10th-best single-season scoring performance in program history. He finished two points shy of becoming the ninth player in program history to score 550 points in a season.
Sophomore Zamoku Weluche-Ume and junior Trent Middleton, Jr. scored 15 points apiece. Weluche-Ume added seven rebounds and three blocked shots on 6-for-9 shooting. Middleton's totals also included five rebounds, four assists, two steals, and he made all four of his free throw attempts. Sophomore Dwayne Pierce also finished in double figures with 10 points.
Northeastern, which snapped a 12-game losing streak on Friday, will play the fifth-seeded Drexel Dragons on Saturday afternoon at 2:30 from FirstCare Arena. Friday marked the Huskies' second win over the Aggies this season, both by double figures. Mike Loughnane and Xavier Abreau had 18 points apiece.
The two teams went back and forth over the game's first 10 minutes. The lead exchanged hands eight times, and the two teams tied the game five times over that span. A&T's last lead came on a Weluche-Ume layup that gave the Aggies a 19-17 advantage. A Ty Francis 3-pointer put the Huskies back in the lead, and they never relinquished it from there. Francis's jumper sparked a 10-1 run, capped off by Youri Fritz's dunk, to give Northeastern a 27-20 lead with 5:36 remaining in the first half.
William Kermoury grew Northeastern's lead to double figures with a 3-pointer two minutes later before a Weluche-Ume slam got the Aggies back to within eight at 32-24. However, the Huskies ended the half on an 8-0 run to take a 40-24 lead at halftime.
"It wasn't as much as their scoring. It was that we only had 24 points at the half," said Ross. "That makes it very difficult to win. On the flip side, they had 40, which allowed us to stay in touch, and we have been a pretty good second-half team. But in the first nine minutes of the second half, they only had 11 points.
Unfortunately, we were only able to muster up 12. Obviously, going from 16 down to 15 down is not enough. We weren't able to score the ball, and we weren't able to hold them down."
A Middleton layup cut the lead to 11, 51-40, with 10:45 remaining in the game. The Aggies could not get any closer, however, as the Huskies' lead grew to 19 on a Kermoury 3-pointer with 2 ½ minutes to play.
"We couldn't get stops," said Ross about the Aggies not cutting into Northeastern's lead further after getting it down to 11. "When you are in scramble mode like that, the other team has to cooperate a little bit, and to their credit, they kept making shots."
A&T has had to revamp its roster over the past few seasons in the NIL and revenue-sharing era. The Aggies introduced 10 new players this season, mostly young talent they hope to keep to build for the future.
