FAMU WBB Exhibition: Ahriahna Grizzle's scoring, team rebounding help edge West Florida | Takeaways

Gameday finally arrived in Al Lawson Jr. Multipurpose Center.

Florida A&M women's basketball took on Division II opponent West Florida in an exhibition matchup to prepare for the team's regular season tip-off at Florida on Nov. 7.

The Rattlers outlasted the Argonauts, 62-58 on Wednesday.

"I'm very proud of the team and that was a very big step in our progress," FAMU coach Shalon Pillow said. "Every game is an opportunity for us to get better and gel as a team and we did that today.

"I didn't care about the score. I just wanted us to get better about the things we were working on to better position ourselves to get a win."

This was behind the debuting Alabama transfer guard Ahriahna Grizzle's game-high 26 points followed by fellow guard Dylan Horton's 15.

Purdue transfer forward Mide Oriyomi led the Rattlers with eight rebounds.

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Ahriahna Grizzle asserts herself as team's main scorer

Grizzle established herself as one of team's primary ball handers and scoring options against West Florida.

Paired with her points, she also had the game's highest usage rate of 34.38 while she played 38 minutes in first game at FAMU.

"It felt amazing just to get back out there," Grizzle said. "The environment we had today was so involved and it felt good to get out there with my team."

This will bold well as the Rattlers return last season's scorer Horton, who had 15 points on the night.

Grizzle did an exceptional job getting to the basket and drawing contact, completing an and-one early in the first quarter for her first points of the game.

"My teammates were amazing and kept me calm," Grizzle said. "We ran our sets and they helped me get in position."

More bench production would help FAMU

FAMU may have its top two scorers, but a spark plug off the bench can greatly assist the team.

The Rattlers' had six bench points.

Guard Jamaryn Blair led the reserves with four total points in 15 minutes and proved to a reliable jump shooter as her scores were off pair of midrange shots.

"'Jam' (Blair) hasn't been 100 percent in practice, so she had spotty minutes today," Pillow said. "But she came in and took advantage of her minutes."

Returning leading rebounder forward Staysha Allen also came off bench and could be the post presence and paint protector for the Rattlers.

The Rattlers can rebound

FAMU worked as a team to grab board as nine out of 10 players recorded a rebound behind Oriyomi's lead.

"We really focused on having physical boxouts," Pillow said. "One of Mide's roles is to be a great defender and rebound and she did exactly what we asked her to do."

As a team, the Rattlers out-rebounded West Florida 38-37. FAMU pulled down 14 offensive rebounds for 11 second chance points.

"All I wanted to do was rebound them by one because they're a good rebounding team," Pillow said. 

Gerald Thomas III covers FAMU athletics for the Tallahassee Democrat. Contact him via email at gdthomas@gannett.com or on Twitter @3peatgee.

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