Jan. 10, 2006
Final Stats
WINSTON-SALEM, NC - Playing in their first home contest of the New Year, and playing their first game of the season at the LJVM Coliseum Annex, everything went right for the Lady Rams of Winston-Salem State University as they easily cruised to a 60-41 win over 19th-ranked Saint Augustine's College on Tuesday evening in Winston-Salem.
The first half of play started slowly for the Lady Rams as neither team would record a field goal until nearly three minutes of play had elapsed from the game clock.
However, the three minutes of what seemed to be a warm-up for WSSU would ignite the home team into a seventeen minute stretch of play that was the Lady Rams' best half in over two full seasons.
The statistics for the first half would be deceiving as WSSU shot only 46.7% from the floor but in doing so, looked like a team that was far better than a 5-9 record would indicate.
WSSU distributed the ball well as they recorded assists on 12 of their 14 field goals in the period which saw six Lady Rams record points.
The Lady Rams would head to the locker room at the halftime intermission comfortably ahead of the Lady Falcons by 14 points with a 35-21 lead.
John Williams and his staff looked to break the trend of second-half slides as the Lady Rams, who have been outscored by 52 points during the second half this season (as opposed to only being outscored by two points in the first half) heading into the game, looked to hold their lead and defeat their first ranked team in the John Williams era.
The second half of play looked as though WSSU's season-long pattern of decline would continue as the Lady Rams scored only three points during the first 5:10 of the half until a Shalonda Carter 12-footer broke the WSSU scoring drought.
Latoya Armostrong answered Carter's call for action with a 22-foot three-pointer only 21 seconds later as WSSU pushed their lead, which had previously fallen back to only nine points, to a more manageable 14 point-cushion.
That cushion would balloon up to as many as 21 points with only five minutes to play in the contest marking the Lady Rams largest lead of the 2005-06 season in the process en route to WSSU's sixth win of the year.
WSSU was led by Janet Robinson's 14 points as she led four Lady Rams in double figures. Latoya Armstrong tallied 11 points and Shalonda Carter and Candace Saunders each contributed 1o points in the win. Saint Augustine's College was led by LaConya Polk who registered a game-high 18 points in the losing effort.
WSSU moves to 6-9 overall (1-3 CIAA, 1-0 CIAA West) with the win while Saint Augustine's falls to 9-3 overall (2-1 CIAA, 0-1 CIAA West) with the loss.
The Lady Rams return to action on Saturday, January 14, 2006 at 5:30 pm as they continue Western Division league play in Salisbury, NC versus the Livingstone College Lady Blue Bears.
For additional information on WSSU women's basketball, contact the WSSU Office of Sports Information at (336) 750-2143 or log on to the Official Website of WSSU Athletics at www.WSSURAMS.com
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