Aggies Lose at Longwood
Blake Harris and Kameron Langley(Southwest Guilford High School) score 16 points apiece.
(from www.ncataggies.com)
Farmville, Va. – The North Carolina A&T men’s basketball team fell to the Longwood Lancers, 77-60, on the road inside Willett Hall Tuesday evening in non-conference action.
“Tough loss on the road,” said N.C. A&T coach Will Jones. “They just outworked us. We have a long way to go in reference to toughness, but it’s early and we will get there.”
The Aggies (2-5) led 9-7 with just under 16 minutes remaining in the first half. The Lancers (1-3) quickly countered by shooting 53 percent from the field and 40 percent from 3-point range in the first half.
N.C. A&T kept it close over the first 14 minutes of the game as sophomore Fred Cleveland, Jr., earned a steal and senior point guard Kameron Langley capitalized with a layup to make it a 23-18 game.
Longwood then executed a 12-4 run highlighted by 5-for-7 shooting from the field to take a 35-20 lead. A buzzer-beating 3-pointer by Cameron O’Connor increased the Lancers lead to 41-24 at the half.
Longwood outrebounded N.C. A&T 19-13 in the first half leading to a 7-1 advantage in second-chance points.
“We haven’t had the energy we have needed since the second half of The Citadel game,” said Jones. “We have to come out with better energy, and we have to rebound the ball much better than we have. We will find the guys who can get done for us.”
In the second half, junior guard Blake Harris came out scoring for the Aggies and the deficit was quickly cut to 44-32. Harris had a career-high 16 points to go along with four rebounds and three steals for the game. A dunk by Aggies junior Kenyon Duling got the Aggies to within at 11 at 51-40 five minutes into the second half.
The Lancers had an answer, unfortunately.
The Aggies never got any closer than 11. A Jesper Granlund layup just before the under 12-minute media timeout gave the Lancers a 63-44 lead.
An 8-2 run ignited by back-to-back threes by junior Tyron Lyons and Cleveland narrowed the gap to 12, but with eight minutes to play, but a dunk by Christian Wilson gave the Lancers a 17-point advantage with 5:12 to play. Longwood shot 5-for-8 and held the Aggies to 3-for-11 shooting down the stretch to secure the win.
Langley(Southwest Guilford High School) finished with a season-high 16 points to go along with four assists and two steals. Cleveland contributed nine points thanks to three 3-pointers.
Wilson led the way for the Lancers with a team-high 15 points. Freshman Justin Hill had nine points, dished out 11 assists and hauled in eight rebounds.
The Aggies will play the second game of a mid-week back-to-back tomorrow against VCU at 7 p.m. in Richmond, Va.