Jan. 16, 2010

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WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. - Home, sweet home. The Winston-Salem State University men's basketball team used 30 points in the paint and 11 fast break points to roll past the Eagles of Coppin State on Saturday afternoon en route to improving to 4-1 inside the friendly confines of the C.E. Gaines Center as WSSU downed CSU 55-42 in front of a near sellout crowd.

Though the Rams led the contest wire-to-wire, the two teams would start the contest with neither team wanting to assume control as Winston-Salem State and Coppin State combined to miss the first 19 shots as WSSU missed 11 consecutive field goals and CSU misfired on eight straight field goals over the first 4:35 of play.

However, a pair of layups, a scoring-drought-ending one by Brandon Hobbs and one by Andrew Jackson, combined with an earlier free throw from junior forward Paul Davis, put the Rams ahead 5-0 less than one minute later as WSSU jumped out to a lead that they would not surrender the rest of the way.

Following the game-opening five point run the Rams pieced together a 9-4 run over the next five minutes of play to push their lead to 10 points before a third five-minute 9-3 WSSU scoring run gave the Rams their largest lead of the game, a 15-point advantage, with only 1:33 to play in the first half.

To the Eagles' credit they would fail to relent as a 7-0 offensive outburst over the span of only 92 seconds cut the Rams' lead to only seven points with only one second to play before halftime.

Brian Fisher would push the Rams' lead back to 11 points at the half as his 74-footer as time expired banked in off the glass and WSSU held a 30-19 lead at the halftime intermission.

A total team effort in the final 20 minutes of play insured that the Eagles would get no closer than nine points for the remainder of the contest as nine Rams' scored in the contest with no WSSU player scoring in double-figures.

The Rams' staunch defense held the high-flying Eagles to only 26.8 percent shooting in the game as Coppin State missed 41 of their 56 field goal tries in the game as Winston-Salem State earned their first-ever victory over CSU.

"We played with energy tonight. Energy and purpose. We had great effort from all of our guys. The team came to me and told me that they wanted to run more and I listened to them and I just told them that we could run if we valued the basketball and they did just that. When you take care of the basketball and play good defense, it leads to winning and we did that tonight" WSSU head coach Bobby Collins said in postgame interviews.

The Rams, playing at home for the first time in 47 days, improve to 4-1 at home and move to 5-9 overall as they even their record at 2-2 versus MEAC teams. The Eagles fall to 5-10 on the season with the loss.

"It is great playing at home and I think that our fans were really deserving of this win tonight. They came out and supported us, and they heard about us winning on the road [at MD-Eastern Shore on Monday] and I'm sure they were excited to see us play tonight, and I think our guys really represented us well and played hard" Collins added.

WSSU was led by Shelton Carter and Paul Davis who each scored nine points in the victory. Davis also added a team-high 10 points in the win.

The Rams return to action on Monday, Jan. 18 at 7:30 p.m. when they play host to the defending MEAC Champion Bears of Morgan State University at the C.E. Gaines Center.