Men's Basketball | 3/6/2026 5:34:00 PM
GREENSBORO – One of the best freshman seasons in North Carolina A&T men's basketball history got recognized on Friday by the Coastal Athletic Association (CAA).
Redshirt freshman Lewis Walker earned third-team All-CAA accolades and made the CAA's all-rookie team. Walker comes into today's CAA tournament game against Northeastern averaging 19.0 points, 5.0 rebounds, and shooting 51.7 percent from the floor, 36.7 percent from 3-point range, and 85.7 percent from the free throw line.
He also enters the game ranked second in the conference in field goal percentage, free throw attempts (209), free throw percentage, and free throws made (174). Walker also broke a few freshman records along the way, starting with the single-season freshman scoring record.
On February 7, in a game against Campbell at Corbett Sports Center, Walker surpassed A&T men's basketball legend Joe Binion for most points scored in a season by a freshman. Binion's 418 points stood as the record for 46 years. Walker heads into today's game against Northeastern with 531 points. If he scores 19, it will mark the 10th time an Aggie has scored 550 points in a season. He will become the eighth different player to accomplish the feat. Binion and Elmer Austin did it twice.
Walker now holds the single-season freshman records for most field goals made (164), field goals attempted (317), free throws made (174), free throws attempted (203), free throw percentage (.857), minutes played (958), and scoring average (19.0).
"He's fun to coach because he works so hard," said A&T head coach Monté Ross. "Every morning you walk into the gym, he's getting up shots. That's why I don't mind calling end-of-game situations for him because I know the work that he's put in. And he's the type of player who is not afraid of the consequences if he misses because he's put the work in, and you're going to fail more times than you succeed in the game of basketball if you play it long enough, but to have someone trust you to take that end-of-game shot says something."
Walker has scored 30 or more points twice this season. He broke the freshman single-game record for points in a loss at William & Mary on January 15 with 33 points. He reached 33 points again on January 24 in a win over Towson at Corbett. In addition, Walker has scored 20 or more points 12 times this season.
"He's probably the hardest working young man that I've ever coached, and that's saying something because I've had some guys," said Ross. "But he's earned everything that he has gotten from us as a coaching staff in terms of minutes played and scoring 500 points as a freshman. I'm just happy for him that he's getting an opportunity to see all his hard work pay off, and he's getting the opportunity to put that hard work on display."
