Jan. 6, 2004

Winston-Salem, NC - The Winston-Salem State University Rams saw their three-game overall win streak, and six-game home win streak broken on Tuesday evening in the CE Gaines Center as they fell in defeat to the Falcons of St. Augustine's College in an important CIAA Western Division men's basketball contest by the score of 57-52.

The loss, the Ram's third straight to the Falcons, drops the Rams to 1-2 in the CIAA (0-1 Western Division) and to 10-3 overall.

The first half of play was a closely contested affair as the Falcons scored first on a free-throw but saw the Rams go on a 10-1 run to take an early 10-3 lead. However, the Falcons battled back and eventually took a 24-23 lead on a converted free throw with 3:28 remaining in the half.

The Rams and Falcons would trade several field goals and the two teams went to the halftime intermission tied at 28-28. The tie score at the half marked only the third time in 13 games that the Rams had failed to lead at the half, perhaps foreshadowing the rocky second-half to come.

The Rams came out of the locker room cold and proceeded to go 6 of 23 from the floor in the half and would score only three field goals in the final 15:42 of play in the game en route to a season-low 28.0% shooting night from the field (14 of 50).

The Falcons benefited from easy buckets all evening long as the Rams' interior defense could not contain consensus CIAA Player 0f the Year candidate Desmond Peoples (Sr./F/6'7"/Clinton, MD) who tallied a game-high 23 points and 11 rebounds on 9 of 15 shooting from the floor. 16 of the Falcons' 19 field goals were either lay-ups or dunks as they used their size to dominate the Rams who were in foul trouble for much of the contest.

The Rams were led by Audly Wehner (Fr./F/6'5"/Fayetteville, NC) who tallied 12 points on the evening in a losing effort.

With the loss, the Rams fall to 10-3 overall and 1-2 in the CIAA while the Falcons improve to 9-3 overall, 2-1 in the CIAA.

The Rams are in action again on Thursday evening as they play host to the Elizabeth City State University Vikings in the CE Gaines Center at 7:30 pm.