Five Aggies score in double figures

Box Score
TALLAHASSEE, Fla., January 15, 2007 – The North Carolina A&T men’s basketball team drove away from Daytona Beach, Fla., on Saturday with one of the season’s most disappointing losses.

They drove away from Tallahassee, Fla., on Martin Luther King Jr., Day with one of the season’s most rewarding victories. The Aggies defeated Florida A&M, the only team in the conference with a .500 or better overall record, 82-78 in Gaither Gymnasium. 

Jason Wills continued his outstanding play with 18 points and nine rebounds, while Steven Rush added 18 points and crucial free throws to ice the game. Walter Booth, Angelo Hernandez and Austin Ewing also scored in double figures with 13, 11 and 10 respectively.  

The Aggies improved to 7-10 overall and 3-2 in the MEAC, marking the Aggies highest win total of the Eaves era. The Rattlers fell to 9-9 overall and 4-2 in the MEAC. The win marks the second straight season the Aggies have defeated the Rattlers in Gaither.

“It was a hard fought game,’’ said N.C. A&T head coach Jerry Eaves. “We had young men who came in here tonight and played excellent basketball in Walter Booth and Angelo Hernandez. When they come to play the way they did tonight, it makes my team better. I think all my young men came in here and played hard in a very tough place to play.”

The Aggies took hold of a 59-51 lead with 11 minutes remaining in the game. The Rattlers rallied to cut the Aggies lead to one, 59-58 with eight minutes to go. From there the two teams would exchange the lead four more times.

N.C. A&T took hold of the lead for good on an Austin Ewing 3-pointer with 3:25 remaining that put the Aggies up two 72-70. Thirty seconds later, Booth took hold of a Rush pass and hit another Aggies three to give the Aggies a five-point lead with under three minutes to play.

After the two teams exchanged a pair of free throws, Rattlers forward Brian Greene had a chance get the Rattlers to within three, but missed a dunk. Rush grabbed the rebound with 1:21 to play and was fouled. Rush’s two free throws gave the Aggies a seven-point lead. But the Rattlers, who came into the game with one of the best 3-point shooters in the nation in Leslie Robinson, were not out of the ball game.

Robinson swished an off-balance 3-pointer to pull the Rattlers to within four, 79-75 with 68 seconds remaining. With the shot clock running down, the Rattlers fouled Wills and put him on the line for two shots.

Wills missed both, leading to another Robinson 3-pointer with 31 seconds remaining to make it a 79-78 ball game. After a Rattlers timeout, the Rattlers pressure forced Rush to throw a bad pass into the hands of Rattlers guard Joe Ballard. Ballard dashed to the hoop, dump a pass off to Darius Glover, but Glover missed the easy layup. He tried to tip in, and missed it. It led to a scramble for the loose ball. As Rush chased after the ball, Glover reached out and pulled his jersey, and was called for the foul. Rush, a 90 percent free throw shooter, calmly went to the line and knocked down both free throws with 13 seconds remaining on the clock.

“FAMU gave us an excellent effort; that was just a great college basketball game,’’ said Eaves. “I thought the officials managed the game well because it was a physical, up and down the court type ball game and those are always hard to officiate. This was just a great win for my team.”

The Rattlers had six men in double figures led by Lamar Twitty’s 16 points on 4-for-5 shooting from 3-point range. Leslie Robinson knocked down five threes on his way to 15 points and Greene had 11 points and 15 rebounds.

The Aggies continue their road trip with two games in Baltimore starting on Saturday afternoon at 4 against Coppin State. Morgan State will host the Aggies on Monday, January 22 at 7:30 p.m.