Jones scores 16 to lead Aggies

Box Score
ORANGEBURG, S.C., January 26, 2009 – The North Carolina A&T men’s basketball team had no problem on Saturday playing in a hostile rivalry game against Winston-Salem State.

But when the extra element of live television was added on Monday night at S.C. State, a team of players who had never really experienced that kind of exposure, had a hard time adjusting to the added pressure of playing in front of an ESNPU audience.

N.C. A&T shot just 29.2 percent, were out-rebounded by a wide margin and missed eight of their final 10 shots in a 71-53 loss to the Bulldogs at Smith-Hammond-Middleton Memorial Center. Ed Jones led the Aggies with 16 points. Tavarus Alston added 12.

“My kids came in here, played on television and simply played the worst game of their careers,’’ said head coach Jerry Eaves. “We couldn’t grab a rebound, we couldn’t hit a layup and we couldn’t hold on to the basketball. On television, we simply didn’t show well.”

It was an uphill battle from the start for the Aggies. S.C. State jumped out to a 9-0 lead and eventually saw that lead increase to 31-11 midway through the first half. The Aggies were able to get the lead down to 15, 42-27, by the half. But the Aggies quickly found themselves down 20 again within the first two minutes of the second half.

N.C. A&T did make a few runs in the game. A 6-0 run was capped by an Alston mid-range jumper cut the Bulldogs lead to 55-42 with 11:11 to play. S.C. State started becoming helpful by missing shots. The Bulldogs scored on just two free throws over the next two minutes, but unfortunately the Aggies didn’t score at all during that period.

Despite the lull, Alston’s 3-pointer pulled the Aggies to within 57-45 with 8:18 remaining. Another Aggie scoring drought – this one lasted four minutes and produced just one point – kept the Bulldogs safely in the lead. When Jones broke the Aggies field goal drought, the Bulldogs still held a 64-48 lead with 4:34 remaining.

“This is by far the worst game of the year,’’ said Eaves. “We had so many opportunities to get back into the game. But we couldn’t hit a layup. It’s all about having enough confidence in your self to hit easy shots.  Every time we got to within 13, we rushed our shots and didn't give ourselves an opportunity to cut it to nine or 10. We missed so many second shot opportunities tonight.”

The Aggies will try to get right on national television when they play at Delaware State on Feb. 16. They travel to Washington, D.C., to face Howard on Saturday at 2 p.m.