Joshua leads Aggies with 17 points

Box Score
ATHENS, Ga., December 28, 2008 – Georgia came into Sunday afternoon’s game against the North Carolina A&T men’s basketball team ailing from poor shooting on the perimeter. The Aggies entered the game holding teams to less than 30 percent shooting from 3-point range, and 40 percent shooting from the floor.

So when the Bulldogs hit 17 of 35 3-pointers on their way to a 98-68 win over the Aggies at Stegeman Coliseum, N.C. A&T head coach Jerry Eaves’ quick reaction was: “My hat goes off to them. I don’t think those shots they hit even hit the rim. They really shot the ball well. When you shoot the basketball like that you deserve to win.”

The Bulldogs shot 53 percent from the floor with almost half of their field goals coming off of 3-point field goals. Trey Thompkins led the way for Georgia. He was 8-for-10 from the floor and 5-for-6 from 3-point range to finish with 22 points and 12 rebounds. The freshman forward hit his first four threes. Georgia guard Corey Butler also had five 3-pointers as he finished with 19 points and nine rebounds.

Dwane Joshua paced the Aggies with 17 points, and has scored 50 points in his last three games. “I thought my team played strong in the second half,” said Eaves. “Any team knows you can’t survive shooting just threes. We wanted to keep the perimeter today and that’s what we did. When they tried to get the ball in the post in the second half we forced turnovers, which is what we wanted. They just hit threes like they were layups today.”

The Bulldogs jumped out to a 7-0 lead, and saw that lead increase to 23-12 nine minutes into the game thanks to three Thompkins 3-pointers and one from Dustin Wade. Joshua came off the Aggies bench to rally the Aggies. He grabbed an offensive board and put it back to start a stint in which he scored seven straight N.C. A&T points to put the Aggies down five, 24-19 with 9:24 remaining in the first half.

But a Troy Brewer 3-pointer and a Dustin Wade layup off of a Thompkins pass put the Bulldogs up 29-19. Aggies point guard Tavarus Alston answered with a dash down the lane for a layup. But the Bulldogs ran off 12 straight points, which included another Thompkins three to take a 41-21 lead with 4:42 remaining in the first half.

The Aggies were never able to get any closer than 16 the rest of the way and trailed 51-27 at the half.

“We knew this was going to be a tough place to win,’’ said Eaves. “But I saw some things we wanted to accomplish. We rebounded the ball well against a bigger more physical team, and we got some steals defensively. But give them credit. They shot lights out.”

The Aggies (5-7) have two more non-conference games before they get involved in their conference season. They travel to St. Louis in hopes of ending their four-game losing streak against the St. Louis Billikens on Jan. 2. On Jan. 5, N.C. A&T returns home to play Tennessee Wesleyan at 7 p.m.