Box Score
GREENSBORO, November 19, 2007 – Until his buddies start hitting their 3-point shots, Jason Wills is willing to take it upon himself to do his part to make the North Carolina A&T men’s basketball team successful.

Wills registered his 10^th career double as he finished with 19 points and matched a career high with 14 rebounds to lead the North Carolina A&T men’s basketball team to an 82-51 win over Montreat at the Greensboro Coliseum Monday night.

James Porter added 10 points and seven rebounds – both career highs – and Austin Ewing finished with 11 points and four assists.

“We couldn’t get things going, so somebody has to get things going,’’ said Wills. “That’s what senior leaders do. They take it upon themselves to make things happen. We’ve got DePaul next week, we’ve got to come out stronger than this. It’s not even just DePaul. Against a (Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference) team, we would have been in trouble tonight.”

The Cavaliers did an effective job of penetrating and dishing the ball out to 3-point range for open shots. Meanwhile the Aggies struggled early, hitting just 4 of their first 17 shots. Seth Moore followed up his own miss with 9:46 remaining in the first half to give the Cavaliers a 14-11 lead.

After four straight Aggie misses, three of them from 3-point range, Aaron Coolazo hit a three from the corner to give the NAIA Montreat Cavaliers a six point lead at 17-11. The Aggies turned up the pressure and began asserting themselves from there. Steven Rush hit a three to cut the lead to four. Wills then got himself going.

Another Coolazo three put the Cavaliers back up by four with 6:34 remaining in the first half. After a Porter free throw, Wills drove to the basket to cut the Cavaliers lead to one. He then used an Ed Jones steal to score in transition to give the Aggies a 21-20 lead. After Tavarus Alston sliced to the basket for another Aggies layup, Wills even helped the Aggies struggling perimeter shooting game by knocking down a three to stretch the Aggies lead to six.

Steven Rush capped the Aggies 13-0 run with a three that gave the Aggies a 29-20 lead with 3:01 remaining in the first half.  “We’re just trying to find a cohesive group,’’ said N.C. A&T head coach Jerry Eaves. “I don’t like the production we’re getting at the beginning of games. So in the second half I really played a lot of different rotations.”

N.C. A&T took a 36-24 lead into the locker room. When Ewing nailed a 3-pointer at the 16:11 mark of the second half, the Aggies had taken control of the game with a 48-28 lead. The Aggies played their first game in the Coliseum in five years.

“We had an opportunity to play in a different environment tonight,’’ said N.C. A&T head coach Jerry Eaves. “I think we would have been a lot more comfortable at Corbett. But there are times when you need to do that because you never know when you have to play in this type of arena in the NCAA Tournament. And we know we have to play in the MEAC Tournament in an arena like this in Raleigh.”

The Aggies (3-2) are above .500 for the first time under Eaves, and they are over .500 for the first time since the 2000-2001 season. They go on the road to Chicago, Ill., to face DePaul on Nov. 24.