RALEIGH, NC – The Winston-Salem State Lady Rams (13-5, 8-0 CIAA) picked up a big 100-67 win over the Saint Augustine's Lady Falcons (10-3, 5-3 CIAA), Saturday. The game was a huge one for the Lady Rams as the Lady Rams remain one of three undefeated teams in the Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association (CIAA) Southern Division.

"This was another great win for our program. Tonight, I saw the young ladies fight the way that I needed them to fight to show that we can contend for the CIAA Southern Division title," WSSU Women's Basketball Head Coach Stephen Joyner, Jr. said. "Saint Augustine's is a very well coached program, a program that I have a lot of respect for and this is a tough environment to win in so for us to come in here and play the way that we played tonight speaks volumes for where I think this team can go."

The Lady Rams gave one of their top offensive efforts of the season, scoring 55 first half points and 45 second half points in the win. For the game, the Lady Rams shot a scorching hot 55.6% from the field while holding the Lady Falcons to shooting just 26.8%. The win came behind some stellar individual performances as senior guard Courtney Medley scored a career-high 28 points in the game. She was one of five WSSU players to reach double-digit scoring with junior guard Jasmine Newkirk recording a double-double with 10 points and 11 rebounds. Junior forward LaQuanda Williams added 16 points while sophomore guard Taylar Wells added 11 points.

"Big time players stepped up to make big time plays," Joyner, Jr. said of his team's effort. "We expect a lot from Newkirk and Medley and they came to play tonight. [Freshman forward] Jovonah Graham stepped up tonight to have her first double-double. So again it's never going to be one person from us. As long as we continue to have four or five people in double figure scoring, then I think we're going to be successful."

After last season's thrilling win in the final seconds last season, the Lady Rams left no doubt about the outcome of today's game, taking the win by 33 points. "We talked to the newcomers about last year's games and the battles that we had with Saint Augustine's last year and the type of environment that we would be playing in and how the games were won," Joyner said. "So we let them know that this team was going to be scrappy and that they were going to fight until the end."

The Lady Rams' 100 points marked the second-highest point total in school history and marked the second time that the team scored more than 90 points in the last two weeks. The last time that the Lady Rams broke the century mark was on February 19, 2004 when the team took a 114-96 win over Bennett College.

The Lady Rams got things going early with a 16-6 run to start the game. The team would never let up as the team pushed its lead to as many as 12 points when a Medley lay-up with just over eight minutes left in the half put the Lady Rams on top, 35-23. It was down the stretch of the half that the Lady Rams would really take control when a 17-4 WSSU run left the Lady Rams on top, 52-30 with just over a minute left in the first half. The Lady Rams would go on to hold on to the 22-point cushion when they took a 55-33 lead into the locker room at halftime.

The WSSU effort continued into the second half as the Lady Rams held on to the lead through the early minutes of the half. Though the Lady Rams remained in control, the Lady Falcons showed a lot of heart as they cut the WSSU lead down to 16 points on a SAC lay-up with 14:00 left to play. The Lady Rams would go on to answer the challenge, keeping the Lady Falcons at bay and reasserting their control of the contest. The Lady Rams would score back-to-back baskets to push their lead to 21 points once again at the midway point of the half. Down the stretch of the half, the Lady Rams continued to battle, cutting the WSSU lead down to 16 points once again in the final five minutes of play, but the Lady Rams would not relent as a late WSSU surge left the Lady Rams with the 100-67 win, the second largest margin of victory of the season for the Lady Rams.

 "We knew that there are three undefeated teams in the standings, but we looked back at last year's standings and Saint Augustine's was right there with us last year so we knew that this was an important game for us stand and fight for the Southern Division championship and we knew that we would have to beat one of those teams on the road. Now that we've gotten the first one, we have a chance to go to Johnson C. Smith and get two."

With the win, the Lady Rams improve to 13-5 and 8-0 in the CIAA. The team will need all the momentum that they can get as they will head into Charlotte, N.C. to take on the Johnson C. Smith Golden Bulls in a 5:30 game at Brayboy Gymnasium. For more information on Lady Rams basketball, contact the WSSU Office of Athletic Media Relations at (336) 750-2143 or log on to www.WSSURams.com.