Wildcats Advance with 64-53 Victory over Florida A&M

Wildcats Advance with 64-53 Victory over Florida A&M
Patricia Porter 03/09/10

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C., March 9, 2010 – Bethune-Cookman’s CJ Reed tossed in a game-high 23 points and handed out five assists to lead the Wildcats to a 64-53 victory over Florida A&M in opening-round action of the 2010 Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference Tournament Tuesday at the Joel Coliseum.

Coach Clifford Reed’s team, the seventh seed, also got 12 points and eight rebounds from Stanley Elliott and 10 points from Kevin Dukes in the victory, which lifted B-CU to 17-15 and propelled the Wildcats into Wednesday’s quarterfinal against second-seeded Delaware State. Tipoff is set for 9:30 p.m. The B-CU win also avenged a 69-64 loss to the Rattlers five days ago in Tallahassee.

B-CU’s Reed called the matchup between the two Florida schools in the MEAC tough and hard-fought.

“It was a hard-fought victory,” Reed said. “We knew it would be that way because both our games against Florida A&M were very close and we had just lost to them on Thursday (Mar. 4). We played extremely hard from a defensive stand point and made some adjustments from our game five days ago that helped us.”

Florida A&M, the tenth-seed, ended its campaign at 9-22. The Rattlers were led by Brandon Bryant with 11 points. Rasheem Jenkins and Christopher Walker added 10 points each in the loss.

B-CU, ahead 33-23 at the half, saw its lead shrink to five three times in the second half, the last time at 44-39 when Travis Wallace got a layup for the Rattlers with 10:23 remaining.

Wildcat reserve Albert Abrahams answered with a layup at the 10:06 mark, triggering a 10-2 run that gave B-CU a 54-41 cushion and its biggest lead of the contest with 4:22 on the clock.

FAMU, using the long ball, closed the gap to seven twice, the final time at 58-51 on a layup by Larry Jackson, but by that time, only 54 seconds remained. Coach Eugene Harris’ team was outscored 6-2 the rest of the way.

“I thought when my team took the court, we were ready to play,” Harris said after the contest. “But we had some untimely turnovers that put us in a hole early and we never recovered.”

The Wildcats broke away from a 7-7 deadlock in the first half with a 20-11 run that put Reed’s team ahead 27-18 with 4:04 left in the opening period. The Rattlers closed to within four, 27-23 on five straight points by Walker before B-CU closed out the period with a 6-0 run to take a 33-23 advantage to the locker room.

Florida A&M enjoyed a slight edge on the boards – 39-37, but committed 17 turnovers to just seven for Bethune-Cookman which had 18 points off turnovers to just a single point off miscues for the Rattlers.