N.C. A&T advances: Johnson chips in 21 points; Morgan State is next

N.C. A&T will live to see another day at the MEAC Tournament thanks to a hard-working 65-55 victory over Howard last night at Joel Coliseum.

And for a reward, the Aggies will play top-seeded and defending champion Morgan State tonight in a quarterfinal game.

With about 45 seconds left and the game in hand, Coach Jerry Eaves of the Aggies turned to his players on the bench and said: "I want Morgan State, bad."

Eaves might want to be careful what he wishes for.

The bench did most of the damage for the Aggies (11-21), led by Nic Simpson who scored 21 points, had three rebounds and two steals in 25 minutes. James Porter also came off the bench to score 12 points, grab six rebounds and hold his own against the Bison (7-25) on the inside.

The turning point came with around 14 minutes left when the Aggies cranked up their defensive pressure, led by reserve guard Marc Hill, and went on a 9-0 run over the next six minutes. From there, the Bison never recovered and the Aggies closed the deal.

There have been plenty of times this season when the Aggies let late leads slip away. But not last night.

"That was the best team effort that we've had, probably since the Hampton win (on Feb. 15)," Eaves said. "Everyone played extremely hard and extremely well, was unselfish with the ball and we attacked the basket.

"We got to the free-throw line and we did that because we were very lethargic the first two times we played them."

The Bison had beaten the Aggies twice in the regular season. Despite and off night from guard Tavarus Alston (2-of-12 shooting) it was his teammates who picked up the slack. Thomas Coleman added nine points and 14 rebounds and had two blocked shots.

In the first half, Hill came in with the Aggies down by nine, but his instant energy and ability to run the half-court offense got them back on track. He played just 14 minutes, but when he was in he made a big difference.

"Coming into the game I was just looking to bring up the energy," Hill said. "I wanted to value the basketball and Coach Eaves has been telling me all week to play tough defense. That was my mindset coming into the game."

After building the 48-39 lead with 8:12 to go, the Aggies never wilted, hitting key free throws and taking care of the ball. For the game they had just six turnovers, and hit plenty of free throws.

The Aggies made 26 of 39 free throws, but only shot 34 percent from the field.

"My mindset coming into this game was do or die, we don't want the season to be over," said Simpson, who was 6-of-10 shooting and hit 7 of 8 free throws. "I wasn't going to accept it. I think everybody was saying, ‘I don't want to be the one that lets everybody down.' "

The Bison cut the deficit to 48-45, but Porter scored off a nice pass from Simpson after Eaves had called a timeout.

Porter was fouled and hit the free throw to extend the lead to six. That's the closest the Bison would come.

jdell@wsjournal.com.


727-4081

NC A&T Min FG-A FT-A OR-T A PF Pts

Alston 26 2-12 4-6 0-3 2 1 8

Williams 7 0-2 0-0 1-1 0 0 0

Coleman 30 3-9 3-8 6-14 0 1 9

Witter 16 0-2 0-0 1-2 0 2 0

Johnson 26 2-6 4-4 1-3 0 2 8

Joshua 25 1-3 2-2 0-2 1 2 5

Hill 14 1-4 0-0 0-1 2 0 2

Simpson 25 6-10 7-8 0-3 1 1 21

Upchurch 10 0-1 0-0 1-1 0 1 0

Porter 21 3-4 6-11 2-6 0 5 12

Totals 200 18-53 26-39 13-39 6 15 65

Percentages: FG .340, FT .667; 3-Point Goals: 3-11, .273 (Simpson 2-5, Joshua 1-1, Williams 0-1, Alston 0-2, Johnson 0-2); Team Rebounds: 3; Blocked Shots: 3 (Coleman 2, Witter).; Turnovers: 6 (Johnson 2, Coleman 2, Simpson, Porter); Steals: 6 (Simpson 2, Johnson, Hill, Alston, Joshua); Technical Fouls: None.

HOWARD Min FG-A FT-A OR-T A PF Pts

White 36 4-7 0-0 1-5 3 1 12

Thompson 36 4-13 0-0 2-6 3 2 9

Phillips 22 2-6 4-5 2-8 0 4 8

Collins 33 3-11 1-2 0-0 3 4 10

Kirkpatrick 25 6-9 0-0 1-5 1 4 12

Mukole 23 0-5 4-4 0-7 1 5 4

Walker 11 0-2 0-0 1-2 1 2 0

Braimbridge 6 0-1 0-0 0-0 0 0 0

Lawrence 5 0-0 0-0 1-1 0 0 0

Prince 3 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 1 0

Cooper 0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0

Totals 200 19-54 9-11 10-39 12 23 55

Percentages: FG .352, FT .818; 3-Point Goals: 8-24, .333 (White 4-6, Collins 3-8, Thompson 1-4, Walker 0-1, Braimbridge 0-1, Mukole 0-4); Team Rebounds: 5; Blocked Shots: 3 (Kirkpatrick, Collins, Walker); Turnovers: 15 (Thompson 5, Lawrence 3, Walker 2, Collins, Mukole, Phillips, White, Kirkpatrick); Steals: 3 (White, Collins, Phillips); Technical Fouls: None.

N.C. A&T 31 34 -- 65


Howard 30 25 -- 55

A--3,101.