GREENSBORO, NC ? The North Carolina A&T men’s basketball team took a very simple concept and made it work Saturday evening at Corbett Sports Center.
Be patient. Do what you do. And let things fall into place. Even though it didn’t seem all that effective in the first half, the Aggies kept pressuring Maryland-Eastern Shore defensively. It eventually wore down the Hawks in a 76-61 win that kept the Aggies undefeated at home.
Senior guard Ed Jones led the Aggies in scoring for the fourth straight game as he finished with 17 points on 7-for-13 shooting. Fellow senior Nick Wilson added 16 points and seven rebounds, while Dwane Joshua contributed with 12 points.
“There was not a whole lot of yelling from coach in the locker room at halftime,’’ said Jones about the Aggies halftime discussion after going in at halftime down 38-30. “We knew if we cut down on our turnovers that eventually they would cool off (offensively), and we could begin to get into the flow of our offense.”
The Aggies, who struggled shooting the ball on the road the last two games, had no problem putting the ball in the basket on Saturday. N.C. A&T (7-10, 2-2 MEAC) used an aggressive press that seemed to affect the way the Hawks wanted to execute their offense.
UMES missed seven of their first eight shots, and turned the ball over four times in the first four minutes of the second half. That helped the Aggies turn an eight-point halftime deficit into a 42-40 lead with 15:57 to play.
“You have to take your hat off to Maryland-Eastern Shore,’’ said head coach Jerry Eaves, who saw his team improve to 5-0 at Corbett. “They did a tremendous job of knocking down shots in the first half. But that’s not normally what they do. They came in here averaging about 55 points per game (54.8 ppg), so we knew there was a chance those shots would stop going down.
I told my team we’re going to keep coming after them and eventually our pressure was going to help us score on the offensive end.”
The Aggies never relinquished the lead again after Tavarus Alston’s layup gave them a 42-40 lead. A Joshua 3-point play began to break things open for N.C. A&T. The junior college transfer, who is normally known for his outside shooting, put the ball on the floor and glided past two defenders to the basket for a layup. Joshua hit the free throw that followed a Keishawn Mayes foul to give the Aggies a 49-45 lead.
Joshua’s play sparked a 16-2 run for N.C. A&T that was capped off by a Wilson 3-pointer to give the Aggies a commanding 61-47 lead with 8 ? minutes remaining. After shooting a combined 32 percent in their previous two games and 33 percent in the first half of Saturday’s game, the Aggies found their rhythm offensively. They scored 46 second-half points and shot 52.9 percent from the field.
“People don’t understand,’’ said Eaves. “We are still a young team. We have three seniors, but one of those seniors ? Julian McClurkin ? is playing his first year of Division I basketball. We have Nick and Ed and the rest of these guys are still growing their confidence. If we remain patient with what we’re doing, win our games at home and build enough confidence to steal a few on the road, we’re going to make some hay in this conference.”
The Aggies conference play will continue Monday when they host Delaware State at 8 p.m.