Feb. 10, 2005
Winston-Salem, NC - The monkey is finally off the backs of the Winston-Salem State University Lady Rams basketball team as they snapped their seven-game losing streak by handing the Lady Blue Bears of Livingstone College a 55-53 defeat at the C.E. Gaines Center in Winston-Salem, NC on Thursday evening.
WSSU, who had not won since January 11th, 2005 used a potent inside game to snap their losing streak and get back on track in the race for the CIAA Western Division regular-season championship and a possible bye in the first round of the 2005 CIAA Basketball Tournament that takes place at the end of February.
The Lady Rams started sluggishly as it looked as though the slump was weighing heavily on their minds, as they fell behind 4-0 less than two minutes into the contest.
However, WSSU would turn things around and would ultimately lead by five points, ahead of Livingstone 11-6 only five minutes later.
The lead would not hold however, as the Lady Rams once again fell behind by as many as four points in the latter part of the first period of play en route to trailing the Lady Blue Bears by a single field goal, down 27-25 at halftime.
WSSU, who came into the game 3-5 when trailing an opponent at halftime, used a solid defensive effort in the second half to open up their largest lead of the game with 14:04 remaining in the second half as they led by seven points at 41-34.
Again the Lady Blue Bears would answer, and again the Lady Blue Bears would regain the lead, as they used a 6-0 run late in the contest to pull ahead of the host team Lady Rams again.
However, it would be Shalonda Carter who would single-handedly will WSSU to a victory as she scored back-to-back field goals, the final one being a fast-break lay-up that gave WSSU a two-point cushion at 55-53 with only 26 seconds remaining.
When Kadina Baldwin stole Livingstone's inbound pass with three seconds to play in the contest, WSSU was finally assured a victory en route to snapping their losing streak as they moved to .500 again at 11-11 overall.
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Leading the way for WSSU was Shalonda Carter who scored a team-high 17 points and more importantly, scored the contest's go-ahead, game-winning field goal. She also pulled down eight rebounds in the win.
Pacing the Lady Blue Bears was Love Brown who narrowly missed tallying a double-double as she scored 20 points and added nine rebounds.
With the win, the Lady Rams move to 11-11 on the season (3-8 CIAA, 2-4 CIAA West) while the Lady Blue Bears fall to 7-15 overall (3-9 CIAA, 1-5 CIAA West).
WSSU returns to action on Saturday afternoon at 4:00 pm as they welcome the CIAA West-leading Lady Golden Bulls of Johnson C. Smith to the C.E. Gaines Center for an important CIAA Western Division basketball contest.
For additional information on WSSU women'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
