TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WTXL) - On Tuesday night, the FAMU DRS Baby Lady Rattlers girls basketball team sealed up their seventh straight trip to Lakeland for the State Final Four. The ladies now look to win their third straight State Championship, but this season hasn't been easy.
The Baby Ladies have had a tough slate, and they also lost Louisville signee Jazmine Jones, who put up 52 points in last year's Final Four. Replacing Jones was a tall task, but one embraced by the twin-tastic duo of Erin and Erica Turral.
"They've stepped up tremendously, giving us help with the guards," said head coach Ericka Cromartie. "We don't have that many post players, so everybody's stepping up and playing that role."
"Taking all the load that Jaz had to do has really made me a better player, said Erin, who's averaging nearly 23 points per game. "I wanted to be the takeover person, so when my team needs somebody to lean on, they can lean on me."
Lean they have. Erin put up 46 points one game this season - a school record. Impressive, and even more outstanding given the fact the twins are just eighth graders.
"You just want to help them continue to grow as they get older, because they're still young," said coach Cromartie. "You just want to help them excel on and off the court and just continue to work on their game and work on just being good ball players."
And the fact that there's two of them? Growing older has made their time on the court even more special.
"It's going very good, because now it's like we know where each other is going to be on the floor," said Erica, who's pitching in seven points and five assists a game for the Baby Lady Rattlers.
"When she comes down the court, she knows I'm going to be standing there or where I'm going to be so it'll be easy for me to shoot!" laughed Erin.
"They're young so we just want to maker sure that they grow at a good speed, you know, not too fast, not too slow, but a good speed as young girls and young ballplayers," said coach Cromartie.
Young ball players that are looking to lead their team to another State title.
