Monday night the Florida A&M University Lady Rattlers (1-3) lost to the Troy University Trojans (3-2) 65-59 at the Al Lawson Center.
The Lady Rattlers overcame a slow start after beginning the game with a string of misses, that led to them not scoring until just over 17 minutes in the half.
Troy used a full-court trap proved problematic for the Lady Rattlers.
On top of having scoring woes the Lady Rattlers struggled to limit transition points and rebounds, the lady rattlers were out rebounded 28 to 19 in the first half.
Head coach LeDawn Gibson feels there is room for improvement in the team's rebounding and transition defense.
"We definitely have to get better at rebounding," Gibson said. "It's not something that we stressed against other teams that ran on us… Normally on our rotation the point guard is responsible for getting back and preventing any transition baskets."
Junior forward Olivia Antilla provided a spark off the bench by scoring a team-high 18 points. Antilla felt that her aggressive approach led to her successful scoring performance.
"Personally it was my goal to come out more aggressive this game… One reason that they want me to come off the bench is to help out with scoring," Antilla said. "Tonight as opposed to the other games I felt like I was way more aggressive offensively looking to attack and create not settling for outside shots."
Despite the turnovers and defensive rebounding issues the Lady Rattlers lead at halftime 33-30.
The second half began with both teams trading leads at the 12:56 mark the Trojans took the lead 43-40.
With the lead in hand the Trojans never looked back as they never trailed after this point.
Turnovers were instrumental in the Trojans sustaining the lead, as the Lady Rattlers allowed 27 points off turnovers for the game.
The last 40 seconds of the game were the most troublesome for the Lady Rattlers. They were unable to get two consecutive charging fouls that prevented key scoring opportunities to even up the score.
Forcing them to intentionally foul effectively putting the game out of reach 65-59.
Junior forward Khadejra Young, who was forced to play point guard due to injuries to the teams starting and backup point guards, played a team high 33 minutes. Young feels like her adjustment to playing the point guard position is going well.
"It's a tough position to play, I'm adjusting pretty well I have played the three and four before," Young said. "I'm getting a lot more comfortable playing point guard, and putting the team on my back, I enjoy the challenge."
Next up the lady rattlers play the Southern Methodist University Mustangs (2-2) in Dallas, Texas at the Moody Coliseum, tip-off starts at 8 pm.