Jan. 15, 2005
Charlotte, NC - The Rams of Winston-Salem State University headed to Charlotte, NC on Saturday evening to face the Johnson C. Smith University Golden Bulls in the 2005 Jim Richardson Legacy Basketball Classic as they looked to break a three-game streak of losses to JCSU that dated back to the 2002-03 season. That is exactly what the Rams would do as they emerged victorious, defeating the Golden Bulls on a last-second Curtis Hines jumper 71-70 in front of a sparse crowd at the Charlotte Coliseum.
The Rams would trail for the first 6:32 of the game as the Golden Bulls jumped out to an early 3-0 lead only moments into the contest. However, at the 13:28 mark of the half, the Rams took their first lead on an Alleggrie Guinn (Charlotte, NC) free-throw.
WSSU would hold that lead until three consecutive Ram turnovers led to a 5-0 Johnson C. Smith University run that propelled the Golden Bulls to a 22-17 lead with just over five minutes remaining in the first half.
The Rams would quickly cut the deficit to only two points, but another Golden Bull run, this time a 4-0 spurt, would give Johnson C. Smith their largest lead of the half, a six-point cushion at 27-21 with 2:41 to play in the first period.
Answering back would not take the Rams long as they would immediately go on a run of their own to cut the lead to only two points at 27-25 less than one minute later as they looked to close the gap.
A pair of JCSU three-point field goals by 2004's Legacy Classic MVP Chris Clyburn, the second of which came with only five seconds to play in the half, extended the Golden Bulls' lead to five points at 33-28, a lead which they would take to the locker room for the halftime intermission.
It would not take the Golden Bulls long to add to their lead as they came out of the locker room and immediately went on a 12-4 run to increase the game's margin to 45-32 with 16:16 left to play in the half prompting a Ram timeout.
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Trailing by as many as 15 points, the Rams would use pressure defense and hot three-point shooting to get themselves back into the contest as WSSU would consistently chip away at the Golden Bull lead. The Rams' attempt to tie would be complete when an Alleggrie Guinn three-pointer with 3:52 remaining in the contest knotted the game at 64-64.
The game would come down to the very last moments as the Rams, who maintained possession of the ball, would stare at a one-point deficit, trailing 70-69, with 20.5 seconds remaining in the game.
The Rams would need only 16 of those seconds as sophomore guard Curtis Hines (Charlotte, NC) hit a spot-up 17 footer with four seconds remaining in the game to give the Rams the come-from-behind 71-70 win.
The win improved WSSU's record versus the Golden Bulls at the Legacy Classic to 2-5 with the only other WSSU win coming on January 19th, 2003 (65-60).
Leading the way for the Rams was Curtis Hines, who was named the tournament's MVP, as he recorded 15 points on six-for-twelve shooting. Chris Clyburn paced the Golden Bulls with 22 points in the loss.
With the win, the Rams improve to 10-6 overall (3-1 CIAA, 1-1 CIAA West) while the Golden Bulls fall to 8-7 overall (2-2 CIAA, 1-1 CIAA West) and have their unbeaten streak of two games snapped.
WSSU returns to action on Thursday January 20th, 2005 at 7:30 pm as they play host to the Bears of Shaw University at the LJVM Coliseum Annex in a CIAA intra-division basketball matchup.
For additional information on WSSU men's basketball, contact the WSSU Office of Sports Information at (336) 750-2143 or log on to the Official Website of WSSU Athletics at www.WSSURAMS.com
