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Jan. 20, 2007
PRINCESS ANNE, Md. - April McBride dropped 20 points and pulled down ten rebounds, her fourth double double in the last five games, but she was the only Lady Hawk in double figures, as the Florida A & M University Rattlers (FAMU) slithered to a 70-58 win. The game was televised live from the William P. Hytche Athletic Center by ESPNU. The University of Maryland Eastern Shore (UMES) was out shot behind the arc by FAMU (10-8, 6-1 MEAC) who dropped nine treys compared the Hawks three. All three came in the second half and the Lady Hawks only mustered two attempts in the first half; they finished 3-14. In contrast FAMU was 9-24 and 7-15 in the opening frame. "FAMU did what they needed to do on the offensive end, they made plays," said Head Coach Fred Batchelor. "The difference in the game is that our offense didn't make enough plays to put any real pressure on their defense," he added. With only two long range bombs in the second half the Rattlers picked up the scoring inside and finished with five players in double figures. Marke Freeman led the FAMU assault with 13 points while Q'Vaunda Curry and Joslyne Jackson had 12 each. Ifeoma Onuaku had 11 and Deidra Jones added ten. Only two other players scored for Florida A & M. In contrast McBride 20 led all scorers but Kristi Veltkamp was the next highest Hawk with nine while Danielle Cooper had eight points. McBride's ten also led all rebounders. Jasmine Speed had eight for UMES while Secrett Anderson led the Rattlers boarding effort with seven. It was near even on the game with UMES taking the rebounding edge 35-32. Seventeen of the Hawks grabs come on the offensive end. While UMES played toe to toe with the Rattlers the game was tied only twice and FAMU never relinquished the lead. The first tie was at 2-2 on a pair of Jelila Abdul-Bassit free throws while the other came just three minutes into the game on a McBride lay-up to tie it at four. The Rattlers pushed the lead all the way to 18 in the first half with just under six minutes to play on a Freeman jumper. That was a 19-5 run. UMES began to claw back, going a run of their own of nine nothing to make the difference nine, 35-26 at the break. The streak continued as the Hawk cut the lead to four five minutes into the half when Veltkamp nailed a baseline jumper to make it 42-38. A Curry three-pointer pushed it back to seven but 54 seconds later the Hawks got one of their three treys from Abdul-Bassit to keep it at four. The two teams went back and fourth with UMES making the difference three with 8:12 to play on a Cooper runner. They would get no closer. FAMU went on 22-12 streak that pushed the lead back to 14 on three different occasions and finished at 12 as McBride scored with just seconds remaining. UMES has to time to dwell on the loss as they fight to maintain conference positioning when they host Bethune-Cookman College on Monday January 22 at 5:30 pm. |
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