The Florida A&M University women’s basketball team lost its sixth straight game on Monday to North Carolina A&T 66-49 at the Lawson Center.
The loss put the Rattlers at a dismal 4-18 overall record on the season, while their Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference record also dropped to 2-9 on the year. With the win, the Aggies improved to a 16-7 overall record, along with a 8-3 record in conference play.
The Rattlers had their opportunities to take control of this game and got off to an early 11-9 lead after the first quarter against one of the best teams in the MEAC.
Going into halftime the score was tied 27-27 as the Rattlers held the Aggies to 37.5% shooting from the field in the first half.
However, the second half would be a different story as the Rattlers were outscored 39-22 and the team only made 5-25 shots in the final two quarters.
“They made adjustments to what we were doing and at the end of the day they capitalized on their opportunities to win the game.” said Rattlers head coach Kevin Lynum on why the team’s offense stalled in the second half.
FAMU turned the ball over 29 times in the game and that resulted in the Aggies getting 30 points off of the turnovers.
“Valuing the ball is the most important thing and too many times we were making bad passes that led to points for the other team.” Said Lynum.
The Lady Rattlers are a young team that has been led by two-time MEAC rookie of the week Alaina Rice, who has been one of the few bright spots for the program this season. Rice led the Lady Rattlers in scoring against the Aggie compiling a stat line of 10 points, four rebounds, two assists, and two steals. She’s averaging 10.8 points per game along with 4.9 rebounds and 2.5 assists.
“I’m just looking to come in and get my teammates open on every possession.” Said Rice “Moving forward we just need to come into our last few games and dominate.”
The Lady Rattlers shot 27.5% from the field and 12.5% from the three-point line against the Aggies.
“There are things we have to improve on and it’s a continued work in progress.” Said Coach Lynum “As the season progresses we’ll continue to get work on our fundamentals and developing our young players skillset to compete in MEAC conference games night after night.”
With a two-game road trip ahead the Lady Rattlers will look to end their current losing streak before the start of the postseason.
Sophomore shooting guard Jhakya Dilworth felt the energy and effort from the team is evident in every game.
“We compete hard every night.” She said, “We just need to put it all together for 40 minutes.”
As the season winds down the Lady Rattlers next game will be a matchup on the road against the Delaware State Hornets (10-12) on Saturday, February 15th with tipoff scheduled for 4 p.m. ET.