Aggies are semis for the first time in six seasons

Box Score
RALEIGH, March 8, 2007 --  In preseason workouts, North Carolina A&T head men’s basketball coach Jerry Eaves made his team run five miles for days like Thursday.

The Aggies wore down Norfolk State with constant substitutions and an up and down style to advance to the semifinals of the 2007 MEAC Basketball Tournament for the first time in six seasons with an 81-66 win over Norfolk State.

Steven Rush led five Aggies in double figures with 18 points, while Jason Wills and Austin Ewing scored 11 points apiece. The Aggies will play Florida A&M Friday night at 8 for a chance to reach their first championship game since 1997.

"We're an up-and-down team, and all that running we did in the preseason is really starting to pay off. Like right now, I feel like I could go out there and play another game," Rush said. "I don't think Norfolk was that conditioned."

Rush took a season-low six shots to reach his 18-point total, but five of those shots went through the net from 3-point range. Rush’s three off of a Walter Booth screen gave the Aggies their biggest lead of the game, 58-48, with 12:07 remaining.

Norfolk State guard Tony Murphy worked his way down the lane with 7:47 remaining to cut the Aggies lead to five, 65-60. From there the Aggies would take over. Two Ewing free throws gave the Aggies a seven-point margin. After Calvin Brown hit a free throw, Ewing returned down the floor and hit a 3-pointer falling down to put the Aggies up nine, 70-61 with 5:48 to go.

The Aggies would increase their lead to as many as 16 in the second half as the Spartans went 6:12 without a score down the stretch.

 “As the season came to an end, most teams tried to slow us down and hold the basketball so we couldn’t run,’’ said Eaves, whose team is 10-2 when it scores 80 points or more this season. “When we’re getting up and down the floor, we’re hard to beat. We aren’t successful when we don’t speed up the pace.”

Getting up and down the floor shouldn’t be a problem on Friday. The Aggies and the Rattlers love to play fastbreak basketball with the teams being 1, 2 respectively in scoring in the conference this season. Like the Spartans, the Aggies have defeated the Rattlers twice this season.

“Both teams are probably going to try and score 100. It's going to be a barnburner," Eaves said. "FAMU is one of the few teams that tries to score back with us.”