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Buies Creek, NC - Monday's matchup between Campbell and North Carolina A&T featured two teams riding two completely different waves right now. For the A&T Aggies, they entered this contest on one of the nation's longest losing streaks at 10 games and are seeking their first conference win. For the Campbell Fighting Camels, they rode high on one of the nation's longest winning streaks at 6 in a row. With Campbell getting closer to a double bye, playing in front of a national television audience on CBS Sports Network to the tune of John Fanta's voice, the CAA once again delivered a great product.
The game opened up tense as sometimes happens when teams play on national TV. At the first media timeout at 15:51, it was 4-4. The Aggies went on a 6:01 long scoring drought that ended on a Johnathan Lamothe layup at 9:07 left in the first half. The Camels only scored 9 points in that drought and it was 13-10 at that point. A&T got consistent production from Nikolaos Chitikoudis in the first half as he put up 11 points, which led all scorers, to go along with 3 rebounds and 2 assists. The Camels made a late push to end the half strong, but the Aggies converted a buzzer-beater putback layup by Bryson Ogletree to head into the break up 26-21.
The second half was the Colby Duggan show. The crowd was energized anytime he touched the ball. With the suspension of Landon Glasper, Ryan Forrest, and Julius Reese for the Aggies, they were stretched thin outside of the starting lineup. In their previous game, they played just 6 players in a loss to Charleston. They were positioned to do the same in this game against Campbell. Duggan attacked the rim in the second half and would put 18 points on 7-7 from the field. Attacking the rim worked for Campbell because they were able to foul out Efstratios Kalliontzis with 5:10 remaining in the game. The Aggies were down to just 5 players to play. The game would be back and forth in the final frame but Campbell guard Tasos Cook shot 7-8 from the line in the final frame to seal the victory for the Camels, 66-62. That is 7 straight wins for Campbell and North Carolina A&T still seeks its first conference win.
This game comes just four days after Campbell lost its leader Jasin Sinani to a devastating leg injury against Elon. After the game, I asked Campbell Head Coach Kevin McGeehan about how proud he was of his team to step up and win in Sinani’s absence:
“We are going to play the rest of the season for him. I am proud because we showed some real toughness and resilience when it mattered. It says a lot that our guys were tough enough to figure out how to get it done with just 2 days of reps in different roles…I’m really pleased to get win number 7 in a row.”
Colby Duggan was asked after the game about the team's toughness and his response was complimentary of teammate Nolan Dorsey:
“Toughness starts with this guy here [Nolan Dorsey]. He sets the tone on defense. He injects that toughness in all of us…”
I asked both Duggan and Dorsey about how this group has rallied around Sinani’s injury:
Duggan: “Obviously it’s a horrible thing to see one of your best friends go down like that but we know we need to come together for him because that's what he would want. We want to go chase a ring for him. We would love to be doing it with him but since he can’t its our responsibility to do that for him.
Dorsey: “Honestly, what hurts me the most, is not just the injury itself, it’s he is such a good kid and like Colby said, he is one of my best friends…we got to be there for each other and pick ourselves up. It’s going to be tough.
This group is poised to continue their winning ways despite the huge loss of their leader Jasin Sinani. Colby Duggan made it clear what their goal is: win a ring for Jasin.
The Camels head on the road for the next three games with the next matchup coming against Northeastern on Thursday, February 13th, 2025 at 7 p.m. The Aggies have come close to achieving that first conference win and they have a chance to do so at Elon on Thursday, February 13th, 2025 at 7 p.m. Both games can be seen on FloCollege.
Follow along on X (@TrevorEverette) for live game updates, and for more of my work on House of College Hoops and House Enterprise, head here.
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