Photo courtesy: FAMU Athletics
The Florida A&M men’s basketball team put on a show Monday night, beating the Alabama A&M Bulldogs 76-58. This was the biggest win all season for the Rattlers, as they won by an 18-point blow out. The team shot 58.3 percent from three, and everything seemed to be clicking on the offensive side of the ball.
Senior forward Keith Lamar led the way for the Rattlers, putting up 29 points and making six threes from deep. Head coach Robert McCullum spoke about how the team depends on him to play at this high level.
“As a stretch four, he has an advantage in terms of quickness and being able to play out on the floor.” McCullum said. “I think he’s just now getting the feeling that he’ll have different looks as we go up against our conference opponents.”
Early in the first half, both teams were exchanging buckets as the Rattlers got off to a 26-25 advantage to start off the game. About midway through the first, the Rattlers caught fire, taking off to a 7-0 run with about five minutes left to go in the half. Lamar got the team going with a transition three-point shot to send the Rattlers lead to 33-25. With about 2 minutes left to go before halftime, the Bulldogs began to close in on the lead, going on a quick run to cut the lead within 4 points. The Rattlers went into the half with a 37-33 advantage over the Bulldogs.
Senior forward Shannon Grant, who also had double figures this game, scoring 12 points, spoke on the team’s focus going into this conference game.
“I feel like we just connected better now; we are just saying we are going to go out there and play and just live with the results,” Grant said. “I feel like in the beginning it was a lot of pressure on us and not just us but on a lot of teams across the country.”
Starting the second half off, the Rattlers would pick up where they left off, widening their lead to 48-42 on a 6-0 run, which was capped off by junior guard Jordan Chatman’s layup in transition. The lead has now widened to 54-42 with 10 minutes left in the game. The Rattlers kept their foot on the gas, and steam rolled to a 76-58 win.
“That was arguably perhaps our most complete game of this season,” McCullum said. “In terms of what we did in both halves, we were up four at halftime against a team that beat us earlier in the season. Then we had momentum for the rest of the game.”