Men's Basketball Drops Opener In Las Vegas

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LAS VEGAS, Nev. – For the second straight year, Texas Southern and North Carolina A&T State came down to the wire as the Aggies rallied back in the second half for an 85-79 win inside the Michelob Light Arena on Saturday night during the annual Chris Paul HBCU basketball Challenge.

TSU jumped out to an early 10-5 lead less than three minutes in as Kolby Granger scored seven of the team’s first 10 points. The Tigers cooled off temporarily over the next three minutes until baskets by Grayson Carter and PJ Henry gave them a 15-8 lead but the Aggies came roaring back after back-to-back layups from Landon Glasper for a 15-12 margin.

TSU would turn to its defense to generate offense as an A&T turnover led to Deon Stroud’s layup. The Aggies missed their next attempt and TSU’s Kenny Hunter got in on the act with a short jumper to extend TSU’s lead to 19-12 with 11:57 left. The Aggies would draw to within 22-19 nearly a minute-and-a-half later but the Tigers responded with a 13-5 run over the next 3:12 as Carter scored eight points to up the lead to 38-24 with 6:06 left. The Aggies responded with a 7-0 run to get within six at the 3:38 mark but TSU outscored them 5-2 from that point for a 45-34 halftime lead.

The Tigers opened the second half by forcing three A&T turnovers, which led to six quick points and a 51-34 lead, forcing A&T to call an early timeout less than 40 seconds in. The run would culminate at 9-4 as TSU led 56-38.

The Aggies begin to chip away at the free throw line as they cut the deficit to 61-50 but Zytarious Mortle drove the lane aggressively and recorded a three-point play the old-fashioned way as TSU led 64-50 with 12:32 left. However, the Aggies would counter with another run as they drew to within 69-62 with 9:28 remaining.

After a two-minute scoring drought, TSU turned a solid defensive play into points as Kolby Granger hit two free throws for a 71-62 margin at the 8:24 mark but A&T hit three free throws to get within 71-65 entering the eight-minute media timeout. Granger’s cutting layup gave TSU a 73-65 margin but A&T kept hanging around thanks to TSU’s scoring drought as they cut the lead to 76-75 with 3:41 left.

A costly TSU turnover with 2:45 remaining led to an Aggie three-pointer as they trailed 78-76 with 2:23 remaining. With 2:13 left, Grayson Carter drew a foul in the paint and hit two free throws to knot the contest at 78-all. However, A&T’s Camian Shell found a seam on the offensive end after the free throws and drove to the rim untouched to up its lead to 80-78.

Both teams couldn’t capitalize on its next few offensive opportunities but A&T cashed in on a missed bucket with 23.4 seconds left as Nikolaos Chitikoudis snuck in the paint and scored on a putback. Mortle was founded on the ensuing TSU possession with 17 seconds left and hit 1-of-2 free throws to get within 82-79.

With TSU forced to foul, Shell hit 1-of-2 free throws for an 89-73 margin. Unfortunately, TSU committed an untimely turnover as the Aggies hit two more free throws to seal the win as TSU went six minutes without a field goal.

Carter led TSU with 19 points followed by 14 from Granger and 13 from Jonathan Cissee. Granger also had a team-high nine rebounds while Carter added four assists. TSU closes out showcase play tomorrow at 5 p.m. (3 p.m. PST) against Howard live on ESPNU.