Nov. 27, 2010

Box Score

WINSTON-SALEM, NC - The Winston-Salem State Lady Rams (3-1) pulled out an impressive victory in the home opener defeating the West Virginia State Yellow Jackets (2-4), 68-54 Saturday afternoon. The Lady Rams won in a dominant performance, leading from start to finish. The Lady Rams used a balanced attack, led by sophomore guard Jasmine Newkirk with 15 points to pick up their first home win since the 2008-09 season.

With Saturday's win, the Lady Rams snapped an 11-game drought in home games and allowed much relief to a team that has struggled recently. "In the past few years, we haven't had a home court advantage so it was good for us to get this win out of the way and relieve some of the pressure from the returning young ladies who haven't had much success here."

As a team, the Lady Rams gave a strong overall performance and were especially impressive defensively as the team forced 29 Yellow Jacket turnovers. The Lady Rams also had a strong offensive performance shooting a season-high 48% from the field and had 13 assists to only 16 turnovers. Junior guard Courtney Medley continued her great start to the season with 13 points and three rebounds.

"We're starting to see more and more signs that the young ladies are playing hard," Joyner added. "I saw more effort in that tonight than we've seen in the first few games, especially in Monday's game at Cornell. I was impressive with the effort that the young ladies have been showing."

In the first half, the Lady Rams had a strong effort on both ends of the floor and were able to take a 29-22 lead into halftime. The team got off to a good start and held off the Yellow Jackets until jumping out to an eight-point lead with just over six minutes left to play. The Lady Rams continued their push, building their lead to 10 points with just over a minute to play and took the seven-point lead into the locker room at the half. For the half, the Lady Rams were able to outrebound the Yellow Jackets, 17-15, and forced 16 turnovers.

The second half was all Lady Rams as they continued their strong play from the first half, jumping out to a 12-point on a Newkirk three-pointer at the 15:14 mark. With the score, the Lady Rams jumped ahead of the Yellow Jackets, 43-31. West Virginia State was able to fight back, however, cutting the Lady Rams' lead down to five points with 6:49 left in the game. Down the stretch, however, strong defensive pressure helped the Lady Rams withstand the Yellow Jackets late run. The defensive pressure paid off as some key Yellow Jacket turnovers led to a number of WSSU scores and left the Lady Rams with their largest lead of the game 66-50 with 1:39 left to play and were able to hold on for their third victory of the season.

The Lady Rams take to the court again Thursday as they take on the Anderson Lady Trojans, who the team defeated, 54-46 on the road earlier this season. For more information on Lady Rams' basketball, contact the WSSU Office of Athletic Media Relations at (336) 750-2909 or log on to www.WSSURams.com.