BLACKSBURG, Va. (December 19, 2018) – North Carolina A&T men's basketball coach Jay Joyner needed his team to play their “A” game against the 13th-ranked Virginia Tech Hokies Wednesday night at Cassell Coliseum.
They didn't get an “A” but they didn't fail either. The Aggies shot 45.3 percent from the floor and knocked 10 3-pointers in an 82-60 loss to the Hokies, which got a satisfactory grade from Joyner.
“I'm looking forward to it,” said Joyner with a smile as he referenced the start of conference play. “I think we have played enough tune-ups and we're eager to get started. But we're going to go up to Minnesota and we're going to go to (East Carolina) and play our best and try to get better.
I'm proud of my guys because they competed for 40 minutes. I thought we competed all night, but we made too many mistakes. When you're playing a team as good as Virginia Tech you can't shoot yourself in the foot. That's what we did over and over again.”
The loss snaps a two-game winning streak for N.C. A&T (4-7), but it was another confidence builder for the Aggies as December ends and Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) play begins.
Junior Qua Copeland led the Aggies with 16 points on 6-for-12. It follows up the 25-point, 10-for-17 day he had at Tennessee State last Saturday. Senior Milik Gantz, the reigning MEAC player of the week, finished with 14 points, four rebounds and four assists. The conference leader in assists, sophomore Kam Langley, finished with six against the Hokies.
Graduate Terry Harris, who is ninth in the nation in 3-point shooting, finished with 11 points on 3-for-7 shooting from 3-point range.
“Offensively, we have some guys on this team who are starting to find their niche,” said Joyner. “But I'm still going to stress defense and rebounding. Again, we had too many guys leaking out and not rebounding.”
Wednesday was almost a repeat from the last time the Aggies faced an ACC team. Earlier in the season, Wake Forest outrebounded N.C. A&T 44-22 and the Hokies held a 42-20 advantage on the glass while outscoring the Aggies 21-6 in second-chance points.
Despite that VT advantage, the Aggies got off to a good start. Thanks to two threes from the corner by Harris, the Aggies only trailed 18-14 with seven minutes to play in the first half. Ninety seconds later Langley lobbed one up for a leaping Gantz on an alley-oop layup to keep the Aggies within six, 22-16.
The Hokies (10-1) went ahead by double figures a minute later, but Langley whipped a pass over to Gantz for an open three, the Aggies found themselves trailing by only six again, 29-23, with three minutes to play in the first half. When the Hokies turned their attention into the paint, however, they were able to end the first half on a spurt.
Virginia Tech's 6-foot-10 center Kerry Blackshear scored four points and Hokies guard Justin Robinson turned an Aggies turnover into a 3-point play. It was all a part of a 7-0 run the Hokies used to end the half with a 36-23 advantage over N.C. A&T.
“We were right there only down six,” said Joyner. “We had some critical turnovers and again we had guys leaking out. Until we commit to rebounding, we're going to allow teams to pull away because we're not disciplined enough to send five to the glass.”
The Aggies were disciplined enough and determined to not let the Hokies get too far away. VT looked like they were headed toward a 30, 40-point lead as they led 71-43 with seven minutes to play. But the Aggies fight to keep things from getting totally out of hand was encouraging as MEAC play starts in 2 ½ weeks.
“We can build on this,” said Joyner. It's a testament to the fact that if we play the right way, we can compete and play well against a lot of different opponents.”
N.C. A&T travels to Minnesota to play the Minnesota Golden Gophers, 8 p.m. (EST), Friday, Dec. 21.
