It was a shock to the system, a surprise to North Carolina A&T coach Monté Ross that completely disrupted his team’s offense.
“I didn’t anticipate that someone could come in here and play zone and get away with it,” Ross said moments after UNC Greensboro rallied from a modest deficit and took a 67-55 victory over the Aggies at Corbett Sports Center.
“Just by our numbers, collectively, from three, and individually from three, it’s a gutsy move and it paid off for them,” Ross said.
A&T shot a respectable 52% in the first half, although it was just 2-for-7 from 3-point range. The Aggies rallied from an 11-point deficit, took a halftime lead and appeared ready to run away in the second half.
Then came the UNCG zone, which Ross felt was implemented by Coach Mike Jones to keep the Aggies from getting inside shots. Indeed, the shots stopped falling from close in and from outside. That defensive shift created an 8-for-31 shooting performance in the second half which included A&T missing 15 of their 16 tries from 3-point range in the closing 20 minutes.
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“I would have been a huge, huge loser if someone would have told me that you could come in here, play a zone and we wouldn’t be able to convert,” Ross said.
The A&T defense did admirable work despite the 12-point loss. It limited UNCG (5-4) to 36% field goal shooting, but surrendered a 12-for-30 effort by the Spartans from 3-point distance. Kenyon Giles hit half of his 10 long-range shots, went 9 of 18 overall and led all scorers with 25 points.
Cam Shell seemed to be the only one of Ross’ players who could maintain a shooting touch. He was 6 of 10 and finished with 15 points, although he acknowledged that UNCG took him and his teammates out of their rhythm.
-“Just like coach said, the shots didn’t fall. We weren’t getting enough stops,” Shell said.
Ryan Forrest, who has demonstrated an ability to create defense inside and on the perimeter, went 6-for-21, including a paltry 2-for-11 on 3s, but led the Aggies with 18 points.
A&T (3-6) went with a big lineup, which in part helped it match UNCG’s height. Not in the lineup was Landon Glasper, who sat out the game for disciplinary reasons, according to Ross.
But it was the Spartans who prospered from their size in the first half, going on an 11-2 run over nearly five minutes to go up 24-15 after two free throws by Jalen Breath with 8:55 left before halftime.
The Aggies fell into the hole because of an 0-for-6 shooting slump, but they climbed out over the remainder of the half and actually held a 36-35 halftime lead after a layup by Nikolaos Chitikoudis. A three-point play by Shell led A&T to a 48-43 advantage with 15:47 to go, but the Aggies would only get three baskets the rest of the way.
Jahnathan Lamothe added 13 points for A&T, and Chitikoudis grabbed a game-high 11 rebounds. Donovan Atwell got 15 and Breath recorded another double-double with 10 points and 10 rebounds for UNCG.
A&T heads into Virginia for a pair of games next week. The Aggies are at Virginia Tech on Thursday, then play at Liberty next Saturday.
UNCG goes south next Saturday for a game with North Florida.
