Florida A&M adds junior-college standout Lia Sims to roster reset
Florida A&M added a built-in frontline answer when Lia Sims committed on April 12, giving Bridgette Gordon a junior-college piece with numbers that translate fast. The 5-foot-10 guard-forward from Lemoore College averaged 16.1 points and 11.0 rebounds per game, production that gives the Rattlers immediate value as they reshape a roster that finished 8-21.
Sims is not arriving as a long-term projection. She was a sophomore at Lemoore, shot 49.7 percent from the field, 31.3 percent from 3-point range and 70.2 percent from the line, and added 1.9 assists per game. In the Central Valley Conference, she was among the scoring leaders and ranked first in rebounds per game at 11.0. That combination matters for Florida A&M because it suggests a player who can finish through contact, clean up misses and hold her own without needing a year to learn how to survive the physical side of the game.
For a program in roster reset mode, that kind of steadiness is the point. Gordon has kept the roster intact while layering in high school and portal additions, and Sims fits the part of the build that cannot be left to chance. Freshmen often need time to adjust to the speed and size of the college game; late portal additions sometimes arrive with fit questions still unresolved. Sims already showed she can produce over 29 games and help lead Lemoore to a 20-9 record, which gives Florida A&M a player whose role does not need to be invented from scratch.
The Rattlers were already back on campus on Monday, June 22, for summer classes, workouts and on-court drills, so Sims is stepping into a program that is already sorting rotations and habits rather than waiting for fall practice. She joins other transfer additions in Rose Jamison from Bellarmine, Kamryn Grant from Dayton and Persais Williams from Winthrop, giving Gordon a mix of JUCO production and Division I experience as Florida A&M tries to move up in the SWAC. Gordon, hired on July 28, 2023, has spent two seasons building toward that balance, and Sims looks like the kind of addition that can help it pay off right away.