In Monday’s 70-73 loss to the North Carolina A&T Aggies, the FAMU Rattlers discovered they had a bit of a problem on their hands; they could not keep the ball in them.
In a particularly poor showing under the glass, the Rattlers were out rebounded in the game 42-35.
But the more debilitating stat lied in the offensive rebounding category-23 of 42 of the Aggies rebounds came on the offensive end.
The Aggies amassed 20 second-chance points in the game.
“We just didn’t play angles and get to the loose balls,” said junior forward Brian Greene. “You can’t win if you don’t rebound the ball. The last 10 minutes they got some key rebounds and we didn’t recover.”
With a little over eight minutes left in the game, the Aggies did their best window cleaning, grabbing a flurry of offensive rebounds on four missed baskets.
Though they did not converted on any of the attempts, it was clear that they were ready to take advantage of the Rattlers’ lax effort on the boards.
After failing to capitalize on misses from NC A&T, the Rattlers never recovered.
Mike Gillespie, FAMU’ head men’s basketball coach, said the fault for the team’s rebounding deficiency Monday night did not lie solely on the bulky shoulders of his big men.
“The ball isn’t always going to fall right around the boards,” Gillespie said. “Our guards played hard but they have to execute better on the boards.”
Guard Joe Ballard said the team let a victory slip through their fingers along with the rebounds.
“We should have won this game,” Ballard said. “It’s tough to let them get a road win here.”
For the Aggies, the win was the first away from Greensboro, N.C.
“Give them credit, they wanted to win,” Gillespie said. “I don’t care if it is supposed to be a lower level team or not. They are a basketball team like we are too, and they just worked a little harder.”
Contact Akeem Anderson at thefamuansports@hotmail.com