A&T lost at Monmouth despite 24 Woods

WEST LONG BRANCH, NJ North Carolina A&T is going in the wrong direction at the wrong time of the season. The Aggies lost their second straight game and fourth in five games as the Monmouth Hawks beat the Aggies 85-71 on Monday night at the OceanFirst Bank Center.

The Aggies, who fell to 12-16 overall and 7-8 in the Colonial Athletic Association (CAA), could go either way at this point in the season.

With the CAA men’s basketball championship tournament approaching in two weeks, the Aggies could climb from the top of the conference to near the bottom depending on the results of their final three regular season games. Meanwhile, the Hawks are a team that can jump the Aggies in the standings after winning for the fifth time in six games to improve to 6-21 overall and 5-9 in the conference.

A&T sophomore guard Kam Woods hit all 12 of his free throw attempts and finished with 24 points. It was his ninth 20-plus point game of the season and his first since scoring 29 against Towson on the 19th. January. Redshirt freshman Duncan Powell added 17 points and eight rebounds on 6-7 shooting from the line as the Aggies shot a season-best 91.3 percent (21-23).

It was a three-pointer from A&T’s sophomore guard, though I love Bettis That gave A&T a 23-21 lead six minutes into the first half. But the Hawks responded by going on an 11-2 run to take a 32-25 lead. Monmouth didn’t give up the lead the rest of the way, the senior guard did Demetric Horton broke the run with a jumper. Horton’s shot didn’t stop the Hawks from making another spurt.

The Hawks outscored the Aggies 8-2 in the final 2 minutes of the half to take a 40-29 halftime lead into the locker room.

Monmouth extended its lead to 13, 44-31, in the first 90 seconds of the second half before A&T got back on its feet. Horton hit a three followed by two free throws from Woods to put the Aggies within eight. Junior wing Marcus Watson then grabbed a rebound to get the Aggies in transition, where he found Powell on the break for a layup to make it just six for the Aggies.

After Watson made a free throw, Horton became the next Aggies to find Powell on the break as A&T went on a 10-0 run to cut the Hawks’ lead to 44-41 with 16:06 left in the game. But the Aggies couldn’t keep up the momentum. They connected on just one pitch over the next six minutes. In that span, Monmouth went 6-10 from the floor to lead 57-45 with 10 minutes to play.

The Aggies never built a double-digit lead the rest of the game. Horton added 14 points on 6-10 shooting and 2-4 shooting from 3-point range. Klemen Vuga added 29 points on 10-16 shooting as the Hawks shot 50.8 percent from the floor. In sweeping the Aggies this season, the Hawks shot a combined 51.9 percent from the floor.

When the Aggies head to Towson on Saturday for a 4:00 p.m. tip-off against the Tigers, they face a situation where five of the seven teams at the bottom of the standings have nine losses. The alternative is that the Aggies remain atop the CAA, where they have been able to stay despite the current slump.