FAMU’s women’s basketball is back on the road again after their first conference loss at home against Alabama on Saturday. Head coach Bridgette Gordon explained what those last moments felt like leading up to the final buzzer.
“We fought really, really hard,” Gordon said. “I can’t say we played smart. We turned the ball over a lot and we fouled; something that has always been our Achilles heel.”
Their record in the SWAC is now 4-5, but Gordon says Saturday isn’t a loss if they learn from it and says she’s trying to get the team to play smarter. She emphasized that intensity and basketball IQ were the biggest factors in their fight against the Bulldogs. Staying out of foul trouble is one of their key takeaways from last week’s game.
Sabou Gueye, one of their leading scorers, fouled out early in the fourth quarter.
“We put them at the freethrow line 28 times and we only went eight ourselves,” Gordon said. The coaching staff goes over players’ film with them individually to personalize their coaching and provide every player with tailored insight to prepare for these upcoming games.
“Girls, sometimes, in front of their peers, they have this pride and they don’t like to be called out when it’s right there in black and white,” Gordon said when describing how individualizing film enables players’ reception to critiques.
She stressed that defense, minimizing turnovers and sharing the ball are the key ingredients to securing their first road win in the Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC).
The Lady Rattlers are currently seventh in the SWAC standings. Their opponent, Prairie View, is tenth in the SWAC with a record of 2-7. FAMU will also travel to Houston this weekend to take on Texas Southern. Last year, the Lady Rattlers beat the PVAMU Lady Panthers and the Texas Southern Tigers. This year, the Tigers are first in the SWAC standings and are undefeated.
However, this year’s team of Rattlers is leading the conference in field goal percentage and assists. Gordon says they have the talent to pull out the win against both teams.
“The difference is, teams can not just key on one player. Thursday or Saturday, anybody can be our leading scorer and that’s the beauty of our team,” Gordon said. FAMU has won just conference game on the road this season. Since there are no direct flights from Tallahassee to Houston, FAMU will have to take two flights the day before the game.
Coach Gordon says ahead of the weekend that she trains the players to shift their focus to the sisterhood they’ve built.
“Anyplace is home,” Gordon said. “That is my slogan on the road. We all we got, and that’s enough.”
Her mantra reminds them that they must be their own cheerleaders for each other regardless of whose territory they’re in.
The FAMU women’s basketball team will face off Prairie View A&M women’s basketball on Thursday at 7 PM at the William Nicks building in Prairie View, Texas.
Their next game will be on Saturday against the Texas Southern women’s basketball team at the H&PE Arena in Houston at 4 PM.