Jan. 6, 2007

Final Stats

WINSTON-SALEM, NC - The second half did no favors for the Winston-Salem State Lady Rams (4-15), Saturday as the team took a 72-61 home loss to the Livingstone Lady Blue Bears (4-6) at the C.E. Gaines Center. After controlling the entire first half and taking a commanding 34-29 first half lead, the Lady Rams were outscored 43-27 in the second half.

The Lady Rams had a host troubles in the game, but continued to battle to the end. The biggest issue for the team turned out to be the team's 27% shooting from the field and 17 turnovers. The game turned out to be the story of two halves with the Lady Rams shooting 41% from the field in the first half, but 20% in the second half. Also troubling the squad was the team's 26 total fouls and three foul outs, including their two best post players. The game turned out to be a "foul" affair for both sides of the ball with the two teams combining for 56 fouls and five fouls outs.

Leading the way for the Lady Rams was sophomore center Lavantay Johnson's 15 points and 16 rebounds in the contest. Sophomore forward Candace Saunders added 12 points and five rebounds, while freshman guard Ja'Pel Sumpter adding 10 points as well.

Livingstone College was led by freshman guard Jonta Moss' 20 points while senior guard Lamika Davis added 14 points. Sophomore guard Chelsea Johnson added 13 points in the contest as well.

The game was a tight affair early with neither team leading by more than three points nearly the entire first half. A three-pointer by senior guard Latoya Armstrong at the 14:58 mark put the Lady Rams on top, 9-6. Saunders added another free throw on minute later to put the Lady Rams in control of the game, 10-6. However, the Lady Blue Bears would not go away staying within four points until a pair of Carter free throws at the 1:43 mark gave the Lady Rams their biggest lead of the contest, 32-26. Though the Lady Bears did hit three free throws in the final minute of the half to cut the WSSU lead down to three points with 00:33 left, a Saunders lay-up with 00:16 on the clock left the Lady Rams leading 34-29 at the half.

The second half turned out to be a whole different story with Livingstone opening the half with a 13-2 run that including three consecutive three-pointers by freshman guard Jonta Moss and left the Lady Rams trailing 42-36 with just over 15 minutes left in the game. The Lady Blue Bears kept up the offensive output going ahead by as much as 15 points, 54-39 with 12 minutes left in the game, but the Lady Rams would fight back.

Following foul outs by both Carter and Saunders, Johnson would lead the WSSU comeback effort scoring in back-to-back trips up the court and hitting a pair of free throws that cut the Lady Rams' deficit to just 11 points with 5:55 left in the game. Following a Harris lay-up, Johnson would score once again to pull the Lady Rams to within five points, 64-59 with 2:55 left to play. However, the effort would fall short in the final minutes with the Lady Rams being outscored 6-2 in the final two minutes and ended the day with the loss.

With the loss, the Lady Rams fall to 4-15 on the season and take their fifth straight loss. The team will return to the road, Tuesday when they take on the Radford Highlanders at the Dedmon Center on the campus of Radford University.