Jan. 10, 2009
Final Stats
PRINCESS ANNE, Md. – It was a tale of two halves on Saturday afternoon at the W.P. Hytche Center in Princess Anne, Md. as the Winston-Salem State University Rams played two distinctly different 20-minute periods of basketball en route to a narrow 69-66 loss to the University of Maryland-Eastern Shore Hawks in a MEAC men's basketball contest.
The Rams, playing their 11th game away from home in 2008-09 had difficulty during a stretch of the first half that saw them fall behind by as many as 22 points during the contest before getting as close as one point in the second half as they fell to 4-9 overall with a loss to UMES Saturday.
The game's first six minutes was a give and take affair as the Hawks and Rams traded baskets with UMES opening up a narrow lead en route to pulling ahead 10-7 with 13:58 to play in the opening period.
However, the Hawks, looking for their second win of the season, and using the momentum provided from a raucous home crowd mounted a 29-10 run over the next 10-plus minutes as Maryland-Eastern Shore upped their lead to a game-high 22 points at 39-17 with 3:40 remaining in the first half of play.
Undaunted, the battle-tested Rams closed the half on a 7-0 run over the final 2:06 of the period as Winston-Salem State trimmed the Hawks' lead to only 15 points at 39-24 headed to the locker room at halftime.
Leading the Hawks in the first half was Jamie Boyer who tallied 14 points on five-of-seven shooting from the field, including a blistering four-of-five shooting performance from behind the three-point line.
Brian Fisher chipped in with seven points for WSSU during the game's first 20 minutes as he led all WSSU scorers.
Building on the run that they mounted to close the first half, the Rams came out of the locker room looking like a completely different team as WSSU outscored UMES 19-9 over the course of the first seven minutes of the second half as the visiting Rams cut the UMES lead to only five points at 48-43 when Paul Davis muscled his way inside for an easy lay-up with just under 13 minutes left in the contest.
A Jamar Slocum lay-up with 7:43 remaining in the contest would get the Rams to within one point at 53-52 as WSSU looked poised to take their first lead of the contest.
However, the Hawks kept their composure and were able to stay one step ahead of the Rams for the remainder of the contest en route to a 69-66 victory.
Brian Fisher led the way for the Rams in the loss as he tallied a game-high and season-high 24 points as he hit eight of his 17 attempts from the field and successfully converted six of his 11 attempts from the free throw line. Jamal Durham added 10 points for the Rams in losing effort.
Neal Pitt led four UMES players in double-figures as he registered 19 points in the victory.
The loss drops the Rams to 4-9 on the season while the Hawks improve to 2-9 overall with the victory.
The Rams will return to action on Monday, Jan. 12 at 7:30 p.m. as they travel to Dover, Delaware to face the Hornets of Delaware State University.
For additional information on Winston-Salem State men's basketball, contact the WSSU Office of Athletic Media Relations at (336) 750-2143 or log onto the Official Website of WSSU Athletics at WSSURams.com.
