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Furman 69, Winston-Salem State 52

December 31, 2008

GREENVILLE, NC – The Winston-Salem State Lady Rams (0-11) ended 2008 on a down note with a 69-52 New Year’s Eve loss to the Furman Paladins (7-6), Wednesday afternoon. The squad found points hard to come by against a Furman defense that held the Lady Rams to shooting 33.3% from the field in the game. After some first half struggles, the Lady Rams were able to battle back for a strong second half, but were not able to get back into the game.

The Lady Rams had a solid overall effort with 38 team rebounds and only 14 team turnovers in the game, but the team’s early struggles were too much for the squad to overcome. WSSU sophomore forward Jalesa Byrd had a great effort with a career-high 16 points in the game, including scoring 14 second half points. WSSU redshirt-sophomore guard MaLisa Bumpus added 14 points in the game. Sophomore forward Vontisha Woods added 10 rebounds as well.

The Lady Rams ran into some early struggles as the Furman defense stifled the Lady Rams for much of the half. As a team, the Lady Rams were held to scoring just 18 first half points in the contest, one more than a season-low 17 first half points, which the team recorded in two previous contests. As a team, the Lady Rams shot 20.7% from the field in the first half of play. Four Lady Rams accounted for all of the team’s first half scoring with Bumpus’ 10 points leading the way for the squad. After falling into an early 5-0 hole, the Lady Rams were able to battle back and cut their deficit down to just one point, 8-7 with just over 14 minutes left in the half, but the Lady Rams faded midway through the half as Furman pushed their lead out to as many as 15 points. Though the Lady Rams continued to fight for the rest of the half, the team was saddled with an 18-33 halftime deficit.

The early second half turned out to be no better for the Lady Rams as the team’s struggles continued. The Lady Rams fell behind by as many as 19 points midway through the half, but the team would battle back when a pair of back-to-back scores by sophomore guard Nikki Kee pulled the Lady Rams back to within 12 points, 38-50 with just over eight minutes left to play. Though the team’s run would not last as Furman would regain control of the contest. Though Byrd and Woods would do their best to carry the scoring load for the Lady Rams, the team was outmanned in the paint and was never able to work their way back into the contest and ended the night with the 52-69 loss.

With the loss, the Lady Rams fall to 0-11 on the season and will have a 10-day layoff before heading to Princess Anne, MD to take on the University of Maryland-Eastern Shore Lady Hawks. For more information on Lady Rams basketball, contact the WSSU Department of Athletic Media Relations at (336) 750-2909 or log on to www.WSSURams.com.

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