Ewing scores 14 points

Box Score
CORAL GABLES, Fla., December 23, 2007 – There are few things the North Carolina A&T men’s basketball team could have done to make the score against No. 22 Miami more respectable.

Head coach Jerry Eaves chose none of them. Miami played well against N.C. A&T’s fullcourt pressure all afternoon, shot 58 percent from the field and defeated the Aggies 95-64 Sunday at BankUnited Center. Austin Ewing led the Aggies with 14 points. Steven Rush also scored in double figures with 13.

The Hurricanes (12-0) were led by Jack McClinton’s 17 points. Backcourt mate James Dews hit four 3-pointers on his way to 16 points.

“If we wanted to make the score 70-50, 70-60, we could have packed in and played a 2-3 on them,’’ said Eaves. “But that’s not the way we play. We pressure for 40 minutes. We try to speed teams up, and Miami did a good job of exploiting our weaknesses. We came out sluggish, they came out aggressive and they got layups against our pressure.”

The Aggies (5-7), who were hurt by a slow start at Akron on Wednesday, had an even slower start on Sunday. The Hurricanes scored the first 17 points of the game before a Rush 3-pointer ended the Aggies drought at the 14:08 mark of the first half.

Rush’s three sparked an 8-0 run for the Aggies that cut the Hurricanes lead to nine. Miami head Frank Heath went back to his starters to gain control of the game again. The Hurricanes gained that control in the post. Miami answered N.C. A&T’s run with a 15-3 spurt to take a 32-11 lead with 5:39 remaining in the first half.

Ten of those 15 points came from the Hurricanes post players in the paint. “They’re going to be tough to handle in their conference,’’ said Eaves. “They’re big, strong and have good outside shooting. They hit some deep shots today that got them going inside.”

The Aggies trailed 45-25 at the half. A turnaround jumper by James Porter cut the Hurricanes lead to 47-32 with 16:59 to play. But the Hurricanes scored the next five points capped by a Raymond Hicks jumper to give the Hurricanes a 20-point lead. The Aggies never got the lead under 20 again.

The Aggies close out 2007 with No. 7 Washington State 10 p.m., Friday from Pullman, Wash. After Friday’s game, the Aggies would have played three of the nine remaining undefeated teams in the nation this season with Pittsburgh and Miami being the other two.  

“We’re going to keep playing our style of basketball no matter who we’re playing,’’ said Eaves. “We start our conference in January and our guys need to be prepared to play our style of basketball.”