Florida A&M is now on a 3-game skid following Wednesday night’s loss. Robert Blackburn/The Pit
[dropcap]T[/dropcap]he Florida A&M Rattlers’ slow start combined with an early 12-0 run was all the North Carolina Central Eagles needed to capture their fourth win in row over FAMU 81-63, pushing their series lead over the Rattlers to 12-2.
FAMU (6-15,2-6) has now dropped three in a row by a combined score of 185-239. The win for North Carolina Central snapped a three game losing streak, moving their record to 8-14, 3-5.
North Carolina kicked the game off with a Dante Holmes three from deep. Holmes also kicked off the 12-0 run for the Eagles with a layup following a FAMU missed jumper. The unanswered run put North Carolina Central ahead 24-12. Holmes finished the game with 19 points and eight rebounds.
North Carolina’s defense was what separated the two teams, as the Eagles stole the ball seven times in the first half, only turning it over twice. FAMU sat at the break with zero steals and eight turnovers, finishing the game with only two steals total. There were also several 50-50 balls that went Central’s way. The grabbing and diving for loose balls all over the court prevented FAMU from finding an offensive rhythm.
“Two steals are not enough. I look at a lot of numbers after the game, and that one needs to be higher,” coach Byron Samuels said following the Monday night loss.
The Eagles went into halftime with a 43-30 lead, beating FAMU 22-16 in the paint, with their bench outscoring the Rattlers 14-5.
Just like the start of the game, Central kicked off the second half with another Holmes three to extend their lead to 19 points. Their lead would not fall below 16 points after that, even with Rattlers Malcolm Bernard and Isaiah Omoregie both playing noticeably better after the break.
Despite the Eagles gaining a good deal of separation in the first half, the Rattlers played significantly better in the second. FAMU shot just five free throws in the first half, making three. The aggressive play by Bernard in the second half created a lot more opportunities, getting the Rattlers to the charity strike 17 times and converting on 9 of those.
Senior forward Malcolm Bernard finished the game with 15 points and six rebounds, shooting 50% from the field.
“I didn’t think we wanted it enough,” Bernard said. “We just didn’t bring it. We didn’t play engaged. We played selfish.”
FAMU will have the rest of the week to practice and figure out how to work off this three game slump. They take on Delaware State Monday at 8 P.M. in the AL Lawson Center.
