It wasn’t easy but North Carolina A&T picked up a solid win to open conference play and extend a pretty impressive streak.
A&T held on in overtime to top Florida A&M 97-90 in its MEAC opener, extending its conference home winning streak to 18 in a row at Corbett against conference foes.
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Tyler Mate led the way for A&T with 24 points, while three other Aggies added 16 each in the win. Point guard Kam Langley added 11 rebounds and six assists in a stellar all-around effort while Ronald Jackson added 16 rebounds to match his point total.
A&T led 43-29 at halftime and was up by as many as 20 points early in the second half, but Florida A&M would not go away.
FAMU chipped away at the NCAT lead until it gained a two-point advantage on a Rod Melton 3-pointer with 7:25 to go. The two teams battled the rest of the way with FAMU unable to hold on to a five-point lead with just over two minutes to go and A&T allowing FAMU to tie the game at 81 on an MJ Randolph layup with under a second to go.
Overtime would belong to NCAT, however, as it outscored the visitors 16-9 to bring home the win.
Melton Jr. led FAMU in scoring with 24 points, while Randolph (16 points and 10 rebounds) and D.J. Jones (15 points and 14 rebounds) added double-doubles for the visitors.
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