Hernandez scores 14 points for Aggies

Box Score
GREENSBORO, February 18, 2008 – The North Carolina A&T men’s basketball team came in with designs of slowing down preseason MEAC Player of the Year Roy Bright. But it was the Delaware State reserves Donald Johnson and Joe Dickens who did the damage Monday night at Irvin Corbett Court as the Hornets defeated the Aggies 70-66.

Johnson scored 19 points on 8-for-15 shooting, while Dickens added 16 points and 10 rebounds on 5-for-6 shooting from the field and 6-for-7 shooting from the free throw line.   

“They played as well as they are ever going to play,’’ said head coach Jerry Eaves about Johnson and Dickens. “But we still had opportunities to seize complete control of the game, but we let it slip through our fingers because we couldn’t hit our free throws.”

Although Bright didn’t have his normal dominant game, he was the standout with the game still in doubt on Monday. Bright hit two free throws with 1:37 remaining in the game to give the Hornets a 68-63 lead. Eaves then brought off the bench his clutch shooter in Glenn Nelson. Nelson watched as Steven Rush pumped fake, drove pass the Hornets defender.

Nelson then popped behind the 3-point arc and hit an open 3-pointer from the corner to move the Aggies to within two at 68-66 with 1:18 to play. Johnson went down to the Hornets end of the floor and missed a three. It led to Rush taking down the rebound. Rush started the break and found Ed Jones going toward the basket in attempt to tie the game.

But Jones missed the layup with 43 seconds remaining. After a timeout, the Hornets put the ball in the hands of Bright. Bright drove past freshman Thomas Coleman and pulled up for a short 15-footer to give the Hornets a four-point lead with 10.3 seconds remaining.

“He is a tremendous player and that’s what players like that do,’’ said Eaves. “I thought we did a tremendous job against him most of the night. I just think it was their peripheral players that hurt us. They hit big shots.”

The Aggies were led by Angelo Hernandez who had 14 points. But the Aggies were just 14-for-25 from the free throw line.

“The game down the stretch was lost at the free throw line,’’ said Eaves. “It’s something we’re going to keep working on and working on, but we must hit free throws if we want to win anything.”

The loss moves the Aggies into fifth place in the conference standings. The first five teams earn byes at the MEAC Tournament in Raleigh March 10-15. The Aggies hold a two-game lead for the fifth and final spot for the bye.