N.C. A&T captures 26th straight home conference game with victory over FAMU:Kam Langley(Southwest Guilford High School) with team-high 15 points and 10 assists to go with a team-high three steals for N.C. A&T Aggies

from www.ncataggies.com

Aggies Beat Another MEAC Opponent At Home With Win Over FAMU
N.C. A&T has won 26 straight home games against MEAC competition.

EAST GREENSBORO – The North Carolina A&T took the court for the first time in two weeks and made the best of the experience. The Aggies men’s basketball team won their 26th straight home conference game Saturday afternoon by defeating Florida A&M, 70-58, inside the Corbett Sports Center in Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) action.

N.C. A&T’s last game took place on Jan. 16, a blowout win over Carver College. N.C. A&T played the Carver game because FAMU had a COVID case, and therefore, did not travel to Greensboro for the originally scheduled date of the games, Jan. 16-17. Arch-rival N.C. Central then had a COVID case and postponed the two scheduled MEAC games for Jan. 23-24.

The Aggies finally got back on the floor in the makeup game against the Rattlers and quickly shook off the rust.

The Aggies (7-9, 3-0 MEAC) got out to an 8-4 lead with 14:56 left in the first half, but the Rattlers (2-7, 0-2 MEAC) responded with an 11-0 run over the next two minutes to claim a 15-8 advantage. The Aggies then got things rolling with a 15-4 spurt, aided by four points from junior wing Tyrone Lyons and senior facilitator Kameron Langley(Southwest Guilford High School).

“I thought our guys came out, and once they got settled, they executed the game plan and made it as tough as we could for FAMU,” said N.C. A&T coach Will Jones.

N.C. A&T held FAMU to just 2-for-9 shooting as a team over the spurt and took a 35-22 advantage into the locker room after graduate transfer and post player Tyler Jones nailed a buzzer-beating 3-pointer.

“We like to run and get up and down the floor,” said Jones. “I thought after the 10-minute mark, Kam was able to get the engines running. We got some layups and some dunks. Once we got that energy flowing, I thought we started to play Aggie basketball.”

Langley notched yet another double-double, this time with a team-high 15 points and 10 assists to go with a team-high three steals. Langley recorded his 16th career double-double.

The Aggies kept FAMU at arm’s length the entire second half, leading by double-digits for all but 40 seconds when senior forward Bryce Moragne hit two free throws to close the gap to nine at the 15:12 mark.

N.C. A&T enjoyed its largest lead at 19, 63-44, after Langley sliced through the lane for a layup. Rattler guard Jalen Speer did all he could to try and get FAMU back into the game, scoring nine of his game-high 17 points in the final minutes, but N.C. A&T never gave them a chance, chewing the clock and knocking down free throws at the end to ice the game.

Joining Langley in double-figures for the Aggies were junior guard Blake Harris and Lyons with 11 points apiece. Senior high-flyer Kwe Parker added 10.

Lyons hauled in a career-high and team-high 11 rebounds. He secured his second career double-double after a 15-point, 10-rebound effort last season against Bethune-Cookman on Feb. 8.

The Aggies will take on FAMU tomorrow, Jan. 31, at 4 p.m. inside the Corbett Sports Center, looking for a 27th straight home conference win.

“It’s one of the toughest things ever in college basketball,” said Jones about back-to-back games. “It’s a physical challenge. It’s a mental challenge. It gets into the legs of your guys, and I think for us, hopefully, it will be able to help us tomorrow as we played a number of guys. We know we have to get ready for FAMU’s best punch tomorrow.”