LEXINGTON, Ky. – North Carolina A&T ended an historic season Thursday night with a 79-48 loss to No. 1 overall seed Louisville in the second round Midwest regional of the NCAA tournament played at Rupp Arena.

Freshman Bruce Beckford led North Carolina A&T with 12 points as the season came to an end with the Aggies finishing the season 20-17.

The Cardinals shot 57-percent from the floor and forced the Aggies into a season-high 27 turnovers. Louisville scored 34 points off of those turnovers. Smith led the way with 23 points and eight steals. Siva had 12 points and four assists.

The Cardinals built their lead to 25-7 until consecutive 3-pointers by Adrian Powell and Jean Louisme cut the lead to 28-14 with 6:29 to play in the first half. But the lead ballooned to 21, 40-21, on Montreal Harrell dunk with 5:09 to play. Louisme’s three took it back down to 14 four minutes later. The Aggies had a chance to cut into the lead even further, but a missed Lamont Middleton jumper turned into another Louisville dunk as they led 47-31 at the half.

The Aggies never got the lead under 14 in the second half as the Cardinals improved to 30-5 and will move on to Colorado State.

The 2012-13 Aggies became the first team to play in the NCAA Tournament in 18 years. They also became the first set of Aggies to win an NCAA tournament game after nine previous failures. Their 20 wins were the most since the 1987-88 season. In addition, they will be forever known as the 2013 MEAC champions.

A&T will say goodbye to seven seniors – Powell, Austin Witter, Louisme, DaMetrius Upchurch, Lawrence Smith, Dominique Behonh and R.J. Buck – while bringing back two starters in Beckford and Middleton. Key reserve Jeremy Underwood is a rising senior.

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