Photo credit: Sydne Vigille
The Lady Rattlers welcomed students on campus back to Al Lawson, for their first home action since the start of the spring semester.
Coming off of a three-game road trip, ending in Daytona against the Bethune Cookman Wildcats, the Rattlers were set to go toe-to-toe with Hornets of Delaware State.
After a slow start in the first half, the Florida A&M Lady Rattlers pull off an amazing comeback in front of their home crowd 59-54, against the Hornets of Delaware State.
Point-guard Dawn King, led the Rattlers to a much needed MEAC conference victory with a top score of 14 points. The score was followed up by forward Florence Ouattara, assisting the team with 12 points of her own, who started the game 0/9 shooting from the field.
After single-handedly scoring 11 points in the fourth quarter, Ouattara mentioned that she “had to show up” for her team after she felt like she did not play 100 percent in the first half.
“It was frustrating, but had to remain positive and rely on her teammates,” she added. She started scoring big, to tie the game at 51in the second half.
The team made a few adjustments at the half after scoring only 9 points in the first and second quarter, trailing at the half 31-18.
A 25.9 percent first-half shooting, compared to a 35.9 percent second-half shooting, made a big difference in the team’s route to victory.
Prior to the first two quarters, “we couldn’t really hit anything,” stated King. “We were getting the stops that we needed but we couldn’t score anything,” she went to add, and the energy showed to differentiate the two halves.
The defensive side of the Rattlers came alive in the second half after only allowing the Lady Hornets to score 23 points, which only 7 of those points came in the fourth quarter alone.
The Hornets could not get anything to fall through the latter half of the game, as everything started clicking on all cylinders for the home team.
An impressive 40.7 first half percentage shooting did not follow up in the second half as the Hornets averaged only a 25.8 percentage shooting in the second half. Making it a game’s low average percentage.
The bench added an eye-opening 12 points, whereas the Hornets bench only put together a combination of 5 points.
Overall, it was a great team effort by the Lady Rattlers and coaching by seventh-year head coach, LeDawn Gibson.
Gibson stated that she was “excited for the much-needed win and excited on how the girls came out in the second half and executed and turn the game around” to send the crowd home with something to rejoice about.
The team will have a minor break, as their next action of play, against the Pirates of Hampton University on Jan. 27 at 2 PM in Virginia. The Lady Rattlers look to improve their season in a timely fashion.
As for the next home game, the Rattlers will look to strike again against the Savannah State Tigers Wednesday, January 31. Tip-off is 6 PM.