Box Score
Aggies out-rebound Marines 47-30

GREENSBORO, November 14, 2008 – North Carolina A&T men’s basketball head coach Jerry Eaves wants his team to play as a unit. He knows there may be a different leading scorer for each game and he is fine with it.

On Friday night, the Aggies look like a team that is going to share the burden. Senior guard Ed Jones scored 21 points on 9-for-13 shooting, and junior guard Tavarus Alston added nine points, seven assists and six steals to lead the North Carolina A&T men’s basketball team to a convincing 82-36 win over the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy Saturday night at Corbett Sports Center.

“We are a work in process, but we have a lot of good players with tremendous athletic ability,’’ said N.C. A&T head coach Jerry Eaves. “I think these are the best athletes I’ve had since I’ve been here. We just need to grow as a team and not as individual people. If we continue to do that, we’ve got a chance to be a pretty good team.”

Junior Robert Johnson (Greensboro, NC, Dudley High) and Nicholas Wilson had 12 apiece. Every Aggie except one that played scored.

“I think we wore them down tonight,’’ said N.C. A&T head coach Jerry Eaves. “The U.S. Merchant Marine did exactly what we wanted them to do to us. They banged us around and made us work for everything. We really had to get after on the press to force them into some mistakes because they execute well.”

The Aggies pressure did force the Marines into some reckless ballhandling. The Marines turned the ball over 28 times with 17 of those turnovers coming in the first half. The miscues helped the Aggies take over the game midway through the first half.

A Tim Izzo layup put the Marines up 12-10 with 12:20 remaining in the first half. The Marines would go nearly 13 minutes between field goals, a drought that extended into the second half. The Aggies ended the half on a 20-1 run to take a 33-13 lead into the half. N.C. A&T held the Marines to just 21.7 percent shooting in the first half.

 Jones dashed any hopes the Marines may have had of a come back when opened the second half by hitting a 3-pointer as a part of an 8-3 run that gave the Aggies a 44-16 lead. The Aggies are back in action on Sunday, November 16 when they take on Central Florida in Orlando at 2 p.m.