Box Score GREENVILLE, TENN. - The Winston-Salem State University men's basketball team (7-0) remained undefeated heading into the Christmas break with a hard fought 74-70 win over Tusculum College (5-4) on Monday night in Greenville, Tenn.
LaMar Monger led WSSU Rams in double figure scoring WSSU Rams with 17 points, while Justin Glover added 11 and Marcus Wells chipped in 10. WyKevin Bazemore added right points and five rebounds off the bench, while Michael Bland had eight points and four rebounds. Stephon Platt finished with a big seven points, seven rebounds and four blocked shots and Joseph Thompson finished with six points and four rebounds.
Justin Steigerwald led the Tusculum Pioneers with 17 points and six assists, and Jordan Davidson scored 16 points and had five rebounds. Tommy Klempin scored 13 points, and Larry Smith added 10 points.
Winston-Salem State raced out to an early 10 point advantage before the Pioneers were able to regroup and make a game of it, although another WSSU run put the Rams up 43-32 at the half.
Winston-Salem State would take their largest lead of the night early in the second half when they led by 13 points, but the home team was not going to lay down and several times in the second half, pulled to within one point.
However, coming down the stretch, WSSU's Stephon Platt came up with the play of the game, with a blocked shot on one end, and a hoop and foul on the offensive end, pushing the Rams lead back to four in the waning moments.
As has been the trend so far in the season, the Rams bench outscored Tusculum's, 21-10.
For Winston-Salem State's Bobby Collins, this is the first time in his career that his teams' have started 7-0.
"This was a game where we are still trying to find ourselves, and in the process we happened to get a win," said WSSU coach, Bobby Collins. "The beauty of it is that we are learning how to win early. There is a lot of parity in college basketball, and Tusculum was a very good team. This is a good win for us heading into holiday break," added Collins. "It is very difficult to win on the road, so for us to get this win, it showed that we stayed focused coming down the stretch and were able to pull it out."
"A lot of times teams are ready to fold the tent and get away for the holiday, but in this case, you could tell this was a game that both teams really wanted," said WSSU coach, Bobby Collins.
"When we learn how to execute and put teams away when we have 10 point leads, we are going to be that much better," says Collins.
WSSU will take off a few days for the Christmas break, before playing Eckerd in the Tampa Classic in Florida on December 29th and will follow that playing Tampa on December 30th to close out 2011.
