AGGIES ROAD WOES CONTINUE IN LOSS TO MORGAN STATE

Posted on by Jim
Jones finishes with 19 points on 8-for-17 shooting
BALTIMORE, Md., January 10, 2009 – If the North Carolina A&T men’s basketball team was looking for a let down from Morgan State following the Bears big upset win over the University of Maryland, it never found it.

 

Morgan State took control of Saturday afternoon’s game early and earned a 73-62 win over the Aggies at Hill Field House. Ed Jones led the Aggies with 19 points on 8-for-17 shooting, while Robert Johnson finished with 11 in a game where the Aggies only led for one minute.

 

“We’ll have to go back and watch the film because so many things went wrong for us today,’’ said N.C. A&T head coach Jerry Eaves. “You have to give Morgan State credit; they took it to us today. But we didn’t help ourselves any. We couldn’t hit a free throw to save our lives.”

 

The free throw shooting, an area in the game where the Aggies went 8-for-17, was not the only thing that didn’t go right. The Aggies also shot 22.2 percent from 3-point range and 37.9 percent from the floor. Meanwhile, the Bears used strong games from Reggie Holmes and Rogers Barnes to improve to 7-8 overall and 2-0 in the conference.

 

Holmes finished with 26 points on 9-for-9 shooting at the line, while Barnes scored 18 of his 24 points in the first half. In addition, Barnes was 10-for-13 from the floor.

 

“Barnes was big for them today,’’ said Eaves. “But I don’t think we defended him or played defense the way we’re capable of playing.”

 

The Bears led by as many as 17 in the second half. The Aggies weren’t able to get the lead to under double figures until there were 50 seconds remaining in the game as Thomas Coleman followed his own miss to move Aggies to within eight at 65-57.

 

Morgan State’s Jermaine Bolden ended any hopes of an Aggies comeback by knocking down two free throws to quickly put the Aggies down by 10 again. The loss dropped the Aggies to 6-9 overall and 1-1 in the MEAC. They also went to 0-9 on the road.

 

“We have to get on the bus and ride to the game with the mentality that we are going to win…we’re supposed to win,’’ said Eaves. “Until we come to the gym with that attitude, it’s going to be hard for us to win on the road. It’s all about having a winning attitude, a winning mentality.”

 

N.C. A&T will try to capture that winning mentality as it visits Coppin State Monday night at 7:30