FAMU Lady Rattlers edge SCSU, 55-50; Gibson Get 100th Win

LEDAWN GIBSON
HEAD WOMEN'S BASKETBALL COACH
FLORIDA A&M UNIVERSITY
CAREER RECORD: 100-88 (58-39 MEAC)

ORANGEBURG, South Carolina  -- Freshman guard Dawn King (Waxahachie, Tex.) scored a season high 26 points Saturday evening to spark the FAMU Lady Rattler Basketball team past South Carolina State, 55-50 in the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference opener for both teams at the Smith-Hammond Center on the SCSU campus.

Saturday’s win was also a milestone victory for FAMU head coach Ledawn Gibson, who reached the 100-career win plateau Saturday.

But the evening belonged to King, who scored 15 of her 26 points in the opening half, as FAMU (3-4, 1-1 in MEAC) built a six-point lead midway through the first half, 18-12 on Teneka Rubin’s (Orlando, Fla.) jumper with 9:01 left in the half.

King got the Lady Rattlers going, giving them their first lead of the game at 4-3, on a three-pointer with 17:42 left. She would later score back-to-back buckets to break a 10-10 tie and put FAMU ahead, 14-10 with 13:46 left.

Olivia Antilla (Minneapolis, Minn.) and Khaderja Young (Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.) scored back-to-back baskets to push FAMU to a 25-21 edge with 24 seconds to go, but SCSU (4-2, 0-1 MEAC), rallied to the score 25-25 at the break, on two foul shots by Kourtney Williams with 15 seconds left, and a Jazzmine Johnson jumper with 11 seconds to play.

In the second half, SCSU opened with a 12-7 run, keyed by six points from Williams and three-pointers from Amber Howard and Toni Grier to build a 37-32 lead, before FAMU rallied behind King and Young to take the lead for good.

Young’s jumper sliced the SCSU lead to 37-34 with 13:37 left, then King scored the next seven FAMU points on a layup to make it 37-36 at 11:06, before her three-pointer tied the game at 39-39 with 10:32 to play.

King’s second layup in a one-minute span at 10:11 put FAMU ahead to stay at 41-39, then sophomore Kenya Dixon’s (Baton Rouge, La.) three-pointer pushed the FAMU edge to five points at 44-39.

A pair of free throws by Antilla with 4:19 left extended FAMU to an eight-point cushion at 49-41, then a jumper by King made it a 10-point game at 51-41 with 3:46 left.

SCSU would not go away though, as they staged a 9-4 scoring surge to end the game, with a King jumper and two charity tosses by Young holding off the home team for the FAMU win.

Young and Dixon each finished with eight points behind King’s 26, while Young and Jamie Foreman (Beech Island, S.C.), each pulled down eight rebounds for the Lady Rattlers.

Kourtney Williams led SCSU with 18 points, while Toni Grier had 10 points and a team-high six rebounds.

Turnovers kept the scoring low by both squads as the two teams combined for 44 miscues (FAMU 23, SCSU 21), but FAMU had the much better shooting night, shooting 46.9 percent from the floor, led by King’s superb 11-of-15 shooting night, to 27.9 percent for the Lady Bulldogs.

RATTLER NOTE: Coach Gibson became just the third FAMU Women's coach to reach 100 career wins.... She joined Mickey Clayton (199/1979-90) and Claudette Farmer (177/1991-01) in the exclusive FAMU Women's Basketball Century Club.

WHAT’S NEXT: The Lady Rattlers will break for Fall finals this week, but continue a 10-game road tour next Sunday with three pre-Christmas games in Louisiana at Nicholls State (Sunday, Dec. 14 / 2 p.m. CST), Southern-Baton Rouge (Wednesday, Dec. 17 / 7 p.m. CST) and Southeastern Louisiana (Saturday, Dec. 20 / 2 p.m. CST).

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