North Carolina A&T sophomore guard Kam Woods had another 20-plus-point game, but the Towson Tigers inside presence proved more effective than Woods’ scoring prowess as the Aggies men’s basketball team lost 79-67 in front of a sellout crowd at Corbett Sports Center, Monday night.
“The stage was set for us tonight. If we win tonight, we’re ahead in the standings over Towson, who was picked to win the league,” said interim A&T head coach Phillip Shumpert. “You could not have asked for a better atmosphere and a better crowd. We have to protect our home court in the conference, and we’re not doing a very good job. It’s not only about the opposing team handling our environment; we have to learn how to handle it and use it to our advantage.”
The Aggies saw their three-game winning streak end as they dropped to 9-12 overall and 4-4 in the Colonial Athletic Association. The Tigers (13-7, 5-2 CAA), the CAA preseason favorites, outscored the Aggies 36-16 in the paint and had a 32-26 advantage in rebounding.
Woods played all 40 minutes and had 29 points and six rebounds on 9-for-18 shooting from the field and 5-for-10 shooting from 3-point range. But 6-foot-7, 245-pound Towson center Charles Thompson finished with 13 points and nine rebounds on 5-for-9 shooting. Four of his rebounds came on the offensive end as the Tigers outscored the Aggies 18-6 in second-chance points. Thompson’s teammate in 6-5, 220-pound Sekou Sylla, added 15 points and six rebounds on 6-for-10 shooting.
“From start to finish, we couldn’t do anything to neutralize their inside guys,” said Shumpert. “Our guys didn’t come to play physically. We told our post it was going to be a physical ballgame, and we had to grind it out.”
The Tigers also received help from the perimeter in Nicolas Timberlake and Nygal Russell. Timberlake had 17 points on 3-for-7 shooting from 3-point range, and Russell ended the night with 18 points on 3-for-6 shooting from three. The Tigers shot 52.5 percent from the floor and 42.1 percent from the 3-point arc.
“Sylla and Thompson did an excellent job of pounding us in the paint,” said Shumpert. “Timberlake and Russell provided them with an outside game, so they had a complete inside-outside game tonight. Even though we beat Hampton, we gave up 20 offensive rebounds. And when people see things like that, they come after you.”
Sylla established himself as a factor early in the game, scoring eight points in the paint over the first eight minutes to give Towson a 21-9 lead. Towson maintained a double-figure lead throughout most of the first half as Sylla re-established a 10-point lead for the Tigers with a putback of a Russell miss, giving Towson a 36-26 lead with 3:08 remaining in the first half.
But the Aggies started to get their Greek Night crowd involved as senior Demetric Horton netted a 3-pointer followed by a Woods three to force a Towson timeout with the Aggies only trailing 36-32. After the timeout and another Sylla basket, Woods buried another 3-point jumper to get the Aggies to within three. But Ryan Conway’s jumper gave Towson a 40-35 halftime lead.
Woods kept the Aggies close over the first 10 minutes of the second half. His rebound and coast-to-coast layup cut the Tigers lead to 45-41 three minutes into the half. The Aggies had a chance to cut it to two, but Woods missed on a layup attempt. He had A&T within four again, 47-43, on two free throws before Timberlake’s three pushed the lead out to seven.
But Woods kept the pressure on as his 3-point play made it a 50-46 Towson lead with 15 minutes remaining in the game. Four minutes later, senior forward Austin Johnson made it a four-point game again, 57-53, with a dunk off a Marcus Watson dish.
The Tigers took over from there. A 10-0 run capped by a Russell 3-point play gave the Tigers a 67-53 lead with 8:47 remaining. A Woods three and a Duncan Powell jumper did get the Aggies to within nine, but they could not get any closer the rest of the night.
“Every time we got close, we either turned it over or missed a wide-open layup,” said Shumpert. “We have to step up and get physical. The CAA is a physical league, so we’ve got to fight back. We have to give some resistance. We just can’t let people have their way if we want to be successful in this league.”
Courtesy: North Carolina A&T Athletics
