SBU eliminated A&T from the CAA Tournament

WASHINGTON, DC North Carolina A&T never found an offensive rhythm in February, and unfortunately that continued into March as the seventh-ranked Aggies lost 76-61 to 10th-ranked Stony Brook in the first round of the Jersey Mike’s Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) men’s playoffs. Basketball championship tournament in the entertainment and sports arena.

The two teams played in their first-ever CAA Tournament game as the Aggies made their third conference move in three years, moving from the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) in 2020-21 to the Big South Conference in 2021-22. At the Aviation Institute 2022-23.

A&T closes out its season opener in the CAA, 1-7 p.m. They finished 8-10 in the league in a tie for sixth place. The Aggies opened conference play with a 6-4 record. But the Aggies shot just 38.3 percent from the field and averaged 68.3 points in seven games in February.

On Saturday, the Aggies shot 32.3 percent from the floor. But of course, it didn’t help that the Red Wolves went 16-26 (61.5) from the floor and 7-11 (.63.6) from three-point range in the second half.

“We couldn’t hit shots. We had good looks. We had shots at the rim and we just couldn’t hit open shots,” said A&T’s interim head coach. Phillip Shumpert. “We came out cold and they came out hot. The way things went when we weren’t hitting shots affected us on the defensive end. Our defensive effort wasn’t as good as it was in the first half because we were frustrated with not being able to hit an open shot.”

The Aggies had no offensive blues all game. A&T opened the game with a 14-0 run, 6-10 from the floor with the redshirt freshman. Duncan Powell six points and a sophomore guard Kam Woods scored five goals in the first six minutes of the game. But over the next six minutes of the game, the Red Wolves outscored A&T 17-3, tying the game at 17 on Frankie Policelli’s 3-pointer.

But the Aggies didn’t relinquish their lead in the first half, going up by seven, 26-19. Marcus Watson Three-pointer with 4:49 left in the first half. A Kyle Duke free throw put A&T up by five, 31-26, with 38 seconds left in the half before two free throws by Toby Onyekonwu sent the teams to the locker room with A&T up 31-28.

“We knew they were going to fight back,” Shumpert said of the Aggies’ 14-0 lead. “We know this is a running game. Every team in this league is going to fight until the end.”

SBU took the fight to A&T early in the second half and opened the second stanza with a 9-1 run to take a 37-32 lead. Senior Warden Demetric Horton got the Aggies within three on a short jumper, but it looked like the Red Wolves couldn’t miss. Another triple by Policelli sparked a 14-4 SBU run to give the Red Wolves a 51-38 lead with 11:42 left.

A&T never got closer than 12 the rest of the way, the last time on Powell’s putback that cut SBU’s lead to 62-50 with 4:23 left in the game. But SBU outscored A&T 6-1 over the next two minutes to put the game away.

“It was a tale of two halves,” said Shumpert. “We got out to a 14-point lead. They fought back and got it to three at halftime, and in the second half we shot just 14 percent from 3-point range, 29 percent from the field and 59 percent from the free throw line. That’s how you get a plus-18 win.”

Woods, who was second-team all-conference in 2022-23, led the Aggies with 25 points, eight rebounds and three assists. Powell, a CAA freshman, finished with 10 points and eight rebounds to finish the season with five consecutive double-digit scoring. Freshman Tyrese Elliott came off the bench and scored 11.

Policelli led the Red Wolves with 30 points and 16 rebounds on 6-for-9 shooting from 3-point range. The Red Wolves advance to face No. 2 seed College of Charleston on Sunday at 6 p.m. No more conference moves are expected for the Aggies; That’s why Shumpert said growing up and being physical will be key for the Aggies as they progress in the CAA.

“It’s a really exciting and competitive league where, night after night, anybody can beat you,” Shumpert said. “Every game is competitive. It’s high-level basketball and physical. You’ve got big guards and you’ve got good size 1-5. Losing what we lost early in the season really hurt us in terms of being able to match some of the physicality in this league.”