Junior guard James Carlton posted a double-double of 12 points and 12 rebounds to lead the Howard University Bison to a 54-47 win over the North Carolina A&T Aggies in the first Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) action for both teams on Dec. 6 at Burr Gymnasium in Washington, D.C. The win advanced Howard to a 5-4 overall record after they won half of their non-conference schedule during the first eight games of the season.
Howard took a 28-23 lead into halftime and held tight to the lead for the victory. The Bison are usually led by top scoring guard James Daniel III, who averaged 21 points per game as a freshman last season. But N.C. A&T did a decent job of containing the now-sophomore shooter, holding him to just four points on 1-of-10 shots made from the field, 0-of-6 from the three-point line. Instead, it was Carlton and sophomore guard James Miller who did all of the scoring for Howard, as Miller led all Bison with 17 points. No other player for Howard scored double digits in points, but no more was needed as N.C. A&T struggled to score itself, as Aggies junior forward Bruce Beckford was the only player for his team to score double digits with a game-high 19 points.
The loss dropped the Aggies to 1-8 overall, 0-1 MEAC on the season.
Next: Following a Sunday home matchup against MEAC opponent North Carolina Central, Howard travels to Richmond, Va., to take on the Richmond Spiders on Dec. 13, followed by another non-conference game against Indiana University-Purdue University-Indiana (IUPUI) on Dec. 15 back at the Burr in D.C.