(Tallahassee, Fla.) – In an effort to snap a four-game slide, the Delaware State women's basketball team (6-18, 1-11 MEAC) fell 95-79 to the Florida A&M Rattlers (14-12, 8-5 MEAC) to wrap up its two-game Florida road trip.
With this loss, the Lady Hornets are now 2-12 on the road this season, while the Rattlers secured their sixth victory in their last seven games.
In this first half, the Hornets led by as many as six twice in the opening minutes, but the Rattlers knotted the game at 10 with guard Taneka Rubin draining the lone three for both squads of the first half at the 16:18 mark. After Rubin's trey, FAMU took its first lead of the day two minutes later when Rubin found guard Alicia Hines for a deuce, giving her squad a 14-12 advantage.
As the half progressed, the Rattlers used a 9-0 run, capped off by MEAC leading scorer (24.6 ppg) Jasmine Grace scoring on a fast break layup to go up 35-22, which forced a DSU 30-second timeout with 5:49 left before halftime.
The rest of the stanza, DSU's defense held the Rattlers to only five points, but its offense struggled to get the deficit under 10 as FAMU took a 40-26 lead into the locker room. At the break, Delaware State's Raven Bankston (6-of-12) and Grice (5-of-12) led all scorers with 12 points.
Collectively, the Rattlers shot 43 percent (18-of-42) from the floor, including 10 players appearing in the scoring column. On the glass, Florida A&M totaled 26, compared to the Hornets' 11.
After intermission, the Rattlers came out smoking in the first 1:39 with an 8-2 run, headlined by back-to-back threes from guard Kimberly Sparkman and Grice, to take a 48-28 lead. As a result, head coach Tamika Louis called a 30-second timeout to rally her troops.
The Lady Hornets battled back to make it a 53-40 ball game when Bankston found forward Tylinn Carter in the paint for a floater. Later, Delaware State continued its second half push to cut the deficit to 10 (55-45) when Bankston finished in the paint with 12:38 remaining, but FAMU answered with a Kenya Dixon three on its next possession.
Despite being down, Delaware State did not go down without fight as it cut FAMU's lead to 11 on two separate occasions with the last occurring at the 7:12 mark when Carter finished once again in the paint.
Nevertheless, Florida A&M answered the bell each time as it led by as many as 21 to hold on for its third consecutive victory.
When the final buzzer sounded, FAMU shot 44 percent (35-of-80) from the field and 91 percent (19-of-21) from the free throw line with three players scoring in double figures, led by Grice tallying 26 points (9-of-24) and five steals. Earlier in the day, Grice was named MEAC Player of the Week for the second straight time.
Starter Tierra Prothro, meanwhile, tallied a double-double with 13 points (5-of-7) and 10 rebounds, whereas Dixon added 16 points (6-of-9) off the bench. Coming in, the Rattlers were second in the MEAC in scoring behind Hampton at 69.2 points per contest.
Rebounding wise, the Rattlers won the battle boards at 49-34, spearheaded by Prothro and guard/forward Patrice Collie both pulling down 10. In the backcourt, Kimberly Sparkman finished with a game-high 11 assists, to go along with nine points (3-of-8) and two steals.
Delaware State, on the other hand, was led by Bankston totaling a game-high 33 points (13-of-25) and a career-high nine rebounds. Guard/forward Deanna Harmon also finished the game in double figures with 15 points (5-of-9), whereas Carter scored a career-high 15 points (6-of-8) and recorded seven rebounds.
As a unit, the Lady Hornets shot 29-of-60 (.483) from the field, including 53 percent (18-of-34) in the second half.
Coming up, the Columbia Blue & Red will return to Memorial Hall for its final three-game home stretch of the season, beginning with UMES this Saturday (2 p.m.).
