The North Carolina A&T men’s basketball team came close, but in the end the Aggies couldn’t beat Bethune-Cookman at its own game as the Wildcats defeated the Aggies 54-50 at Moore Gymnasium Monday night.
The Wildcats were led by DeWayne Pettus’ 17 points on 7-for-10 shooting. Ed Jones was the only Aggie to score in double figures with 11.
The Wildcats slowed the game down on offense, taking the shot clock under 10 seconds on the majority of their possession. Defensively, they forced the normally fast-pace Aggies to grind out their offense in a halfcourt set. The Aggies looked equipped to play the Wildcats style of basketball in the second half, but were hurt by numerous missed layups.
“Even though we played their style of ball we had opportunities,’’ said head coach Jerry Eaves. “We simply were not aggressive. We didn’t attack the basket with the idea of finishing strong. We finessed some shots around the basket. We shot one free throw in the first 38 minutes. That says we’re not attacking.”
The Aggies trailed by as many as nine points in the second half. But Angelo Hernandez stripped Pettus and started a fastbreak that ended with him dishing a bounce pass to Glenn Nelson, cutting the Wildcats lead to one at 44-43. The Aggies offensive production shut down from there. Pettus answered the Nelson score with a drive of his own to give the Wildcats a three-point lead with 3:46 to play.
The next two Aggie possessions ended in turnovers. They then went 0-for-6 from the floor until Jones followed a Jason Wills miss with eight seconds remaining to cut the Wildcats lead to 51-46. After Jones’ basket, the Wildcats turned the ball over on the inbounds pass.
Guard Austin Ewing put some excitement in the game by popping out and hitting a 3-pointer with five seconds remaining to cut the Wildcats lead to two with five seconds remaining. But the patient Wildcats put the game away at the line.
“You can’t be passive on the road,’’ said Eaves whose team shot a season-low five three throws on Monday. “We split the road trip. I would have loved to have them both. I felt we should have had them both but we get to go back home and regroup.”
The Aggies have not beaten Florida A&M and Bethune-Cookman in the same road trip since 1998. The Aggies (12-11, 6-4) will try to rebound against Maryland-Eastern Shore Saturday afternoon at 4. They then host defending MEAC tournament champion Delaware State Monday night at 7 in a nationally televised game on ESPNU.
The Aggies matched their win total from last season with 17 and are six wins away from breaking the school record for wins set by another Hope Rush team. The 1990-91 Aggies won 22 contests.