Feb. 6, 2007

Final Stats

WINSTON-SALEM, NC - The Wake Forest University Demon Deacons used their overall size advantage to hand the Winston-Salem State University Rams an 87-71 loss in front of 8,625 fans at the Lawrence Joel Veterans Memorial Coliseum on Tuesday evening in the first-ever regular-season meeting between the two Winston-Salem, NC teams that are separated by only seven miles.

The Rams spent the majority of the early part of the first half trading baskets with the Deacons as the lead changed twice during the game's first three minutes of play.

Wake Forest's inside play, chiefly the presence of the Deacs' 6'11" All-ACC candidate center Kyle Visser, proved to be a problem for the undersized Rams as WFU opened up a lead of as many as 20 points with little more than six minutes to play in the first half.

Head coach Bobby Collins' young Rams showed the poise of a veteran team as WSSU mounted a run of their own as they cut the Demon Deacon lead to as little as six points on a fall-away three-pointer by freshman guard Brian Fisher (Marietta, GA) with only nine seconds remaining before the halftime intermission.

The Fisher three cut the Deacs' lead to only six points as Wake Forest was forced to settle for a 44-38 advantage after the conclusion of the first 20 minutes of play.

Second-half action saw the Demon Deacons continue to use their size advantage as Wake Forest tallied 28 points in the paint and benefited from 21 second-chance points en route to the 16-point win. 

Wake Forest's twin towers of Visser and the 6'8" Jamie Skeen each tallied double-doubles in the contest marking only the second time this season that a team saw two players in double-figures in more than one category.

Visser's team-leading 15 points and 11 rebounds, combined with Skeen's 11 points and 13 rebounds proved to be too much for the Rams as the pair of big men led six WFU players into double figures.

The Rams were led by Brian Fisher's 25 points in the loss.  Fisher was joined in double-figures by Darrell Wonge who tallied a season-high 17 points in a losing effort.  

"I have never seen our guys so focused, and so wanting to win.  We left it all on the floor, but I thought that Wake Forest was much bigger and used their size advantage to help get some easy buckets.  We live and die by the three-pointer sometimes as we aren't very big, and although our guys really gave it everything they had, we came up short.  The rivalry is great for the city and great for the fans and the two programs and unfortunately we came up on the wrong side of it tonight" WSSU head coach Bobby Collins said in postgame interviews.

The loss drops the Rams to 4-21 on the season and runs WSSU's losing streak to two games.  Wake Forest improves to 11-12 overall with the win.

WSSU returns to action on Saturday, February 10, 2007 at 7:00 pm as the Rams play host to the Pioneers of Columbia Union at the C.E. Gaines Center in Winston-Salem, NC.  The contest will be touted as "Senior Night" as three WSSU seniors will appear in the last home game of their WSSU careers.

For additional information on WSSU men'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.

- wssurams.com -