North Carolina A&T 73, Liberty 72: Jeremy Underwood came off the bench to score 19 points and the Aggies held off a late rally for their first NCAA Tournament victory in the first round of the Midwest Regional at Dayton, Ohio.Bruce Beckford contributed 16 points and nine rebounds for North Carolina A&T (20-16), which survived as John Caleb Sanders missed an off-balance layup in the final seconds. Lamont Middleton added 14 points for the Aggies, who play top-seeded Louisville in Thursday's second round at Lexington, Ky.Davon Marshall scored 22 points and Sanders had 21 for Liberty (15-21), which had its five-game win streak snapped. Tavares Speaks chipped in with 17 points, including a basket with 11.1 seconds left to pull the Flames within one.The Aggies trailed by seven early before Beckford's 12 points and the team's 5-of-10 shooting from 3-point range helped them build a 40-33 lead at intermission. Marshall and Sanders each drained three 3-pointers to keep Liberty in striking distance during the opening 20 minutes.Liberty, the second team to come into the tournament with 20 losses, trimmed a 10-point deficit to 73-70 on Marshall's sixth 3-pointer with 1:30 left. After Speaks' basket, Middleton missed the front end of a one-and-one with seven seconds to go which allowed Sanders to get a last chance.GAME NOTEBOOK: Underwood was 6-of-6 shooting for North Carolina A&T, which was making its first appearance in the NCAAs since 1995 and is 1-9 overall. … Marshall broke the single-season record for 3-pointers at Liberty with 107, passing Seth Curry's 102 in 2008-09 before he transferred to Duke. … Sanders became the 23rd player to score 1,000 career points at Liberty, joining his older brother Jesse.
Recap: North Carolina A&T 73, Liberty 72
POSTED: 10:40 PM Mar 19 2013
UPDATED: 10:40 PM Mar 19 2013
Text Size:
-
Distributed by Internet Broadcasting and The Sports Xchange. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Comments
The views expressed are not those of this site, this station or its affiliated companies. By posting your comments you agree to accept our terms of use.

