FAMU won a close 96-92 overtime decision in Gaither Gym last night to beat Maryland Eastern Shore and improve to 9-9 on the season (5-2 MEAC). The Hawks fell to 4-12(1-5 MEAC).The Rattlers got 26 points from Tony Tate. Joe Ballard (not to be confused w/ Joe Bullard!) had 18, while Rome Sanders and Jonathan Kelly finished with 17 and 10, respectively.
Saturday's bout was a thriller with eight lead changes and 15 tie scores during the evening.
Here's the back story on the game provided by "Rattler 52"
...the game tonight in Gaither was off the chain. Gillespie is one strategic coach. I say that because our guys were ice cold in a major portion of the first half. Gillespie put them in a press and it resulted in some layup opportunities.
UMES had some great outside shooters.
The sixth man of the game and probably co-MVP was the Marching 100. UMES coach tried to take his team outside of the gym for a timeout because he was complaining his team couldn't hear him over the band....then came Townsend's first good move as AD. He saw what happened and told our announcer to shorten the announcements during timeout so the band could play more. AWESOME thinking. Dr. White and the boys blew it out with everything from "I'm Sprung" to 'Spongebob Squarepants" to "Got to be Real". They were extra loud. I'll bet Townsend requests a larger band for bigger games.
In the second half we grinded back from a deficit behind the shooting of Tony Tate and Rome Saunders. We took the game in an overtime thriller. It felt like old school FAMU. Everybody from the team to the band to the AD worked together to make this a victory. Coach Carter and all of his coaches were there with recruits. That was a great game to bring them to. Looking at the co-ed population at the well attended game, the recruits looked very pleased.
Lady Rattlers break three game Losing Streak
The Lady Rattlers dropped the the UMES Lady Hawks 65-53 in the afternoon game, to snap a three-game losing streak. The Lady Rattlers improved to 7-9 on the season (3-4 MEAC), while the visting Lady Hawks fell to 5-9 (3-3 MEAC).
The two schools played dead even in the first half, as FAMU rallied from an early 9-1 deficit, to take a 12-10 lead, only to see UMES surge ahead 28-16 with 5:24 left.
Florida A&M outscored UMES, 37-25 in the second half, as the Lady Rattlers opened the period with an 11-0 run in the first five minutes.
The Rattlers and the Lady Rattlers host Howard on Monday night.