Feb. 25, 2008

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WINSTON-SALEM, NC - The Winston-Salem State University Lady Rams closed out their home schedule with a loss on Monday evening at the Joel Coliseum Annex as they fell in defeat, 69-45, to the Norfolk State University Lady Spartans in a contest that saw the two teams combine for 45 fouls and 64 total turnovers.

The Lady Rams, looking for revenge against a Lady Spartan team that erased a seven point lead in the final 36 seconds of play to sneak out a 62-61 win over WSSU in the two teams' only other meeting this season, were unable to capitalize on 25 Norfolk State University turnovers on Monday evening as WSSU closed out their home schedule with their 11^th loss at home in 2007-08.

WSSU would trail the Lady Spartans by only 11 points at halftime as the Lady Rams faced a 38-27 deficit heading into the locker room at the intermission.

The Lady Rams would hit nearly 40 percent of their field goal attempts during the game's first 20 minutes of play as WSSU, with a seven-person roster made entirely of freshmen, would not allow Norfolk State to pull away.

Second half action would be unkind to the Lady Rams as the visiting Lady Spartans outscored WSSU 31-18 over the contest's final 20 minutes of play.

Despite outrebounding Norfolk State 44 to 29, the Lady Rams were able to create only 12 second-chance points in the contest as 26 personal fouls and a season-high 39 turnovers allowed Norfolk State to break the contest open in the second half.

26 WSSU fouls would eventually hurt the youthful and injury-laden Lady Rams' roster as only four players were still on the court for WSSU for the final four minutes of the contest after WSSU fouled out their third player of their seven-person roster.

The loss was not for lack of effort as the Lady Rams turned in some of their most spirited play of the season with Vontisha Woods leading the charge for WSSU as the freshman forward tallied a career-high 20 points to lead all WSSU scorers.

Raychele Payne led the Lady Spartans with a game-high 23 points in the win as she led four NSU players into double-figures.

The loss drops the Lady Rams to 2-23 on the season while The Lady Spartans improve to 5-19 overall with the victory. 

Norfolk State University's victory improves the Lady Spartans to 23-4 overall in the all-time series between the two teams which dates back to both program's days in the Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association.

WSSU returns to action on March 1 at 2:00 pm as they travel to Tallahassee, Florida to take on the Lady Rattlers of Florida A&M University in the Lady Rams penultimate contest of the season.

For additional information on WSSU women's basketball, contact the WSSU Office of Athletic Media Relations at (336) 750-2909 or log on to the Official Website of WSSU Athletics at WSSURams.com.