Poor Shooting Plagues WSSU Men’s Basketball In 73-53 Loss To Wake Forest
Chris Zona
11/24/07

WINSTON-SALEM, NC – The Winston-Salem State University Rams shot 25 percent from the floor on Friday evening at the Joel Coliseum in Winston-Salem, NC as they fell in defeat to the cross-town rival Demon Deacons of Wake Forest by the score 73-53 in the 2007 Twin City Shootout.

The Twin City Shootout proved to be anything but a shootout as the two teams took nearly three and a half minutes to break a scoreless tie in the early going.  Neither the Rams nor the Demon Deacons would shoot well in the first half as the two teams combined to hit only 16 of their first 54 field goals (29.6 percent). 

Wake Forest would outshoot the Rams during the first 20 minutes of play as the Demon Deacons connected on 10 of their 30 (33.3 percent) attempts from the field while the Rams hit only six of 24 (25.0 percent) shots.

A team that entered the contest committing an average of 16 turnovers per game, the Rams gave the ball away 14 times in the first half as the Deacs recorded 13 points off of turnovers in the first 20 minutes of play taking a 36-20 lead into the locker room at halftime.

“I told my team that we had to weather the storm of the Wake Forest defense during the first five minutes of the game, and as you saw, we turned the ball over about five times in the first seven possessions, and that hurt us.  I mean, we turned the ball over 14 times in the first half and you can’t do that against a team like Wake Forest” head coach Bobby Collins said in post game interviews.

Second half action would prove to be nearly a mirror image of the first half as the uncharacteristically sloppy play continued with the two teams combining for 11 fouls before the first media timeout at the 16:00 mark of the second half.

The Rams would cut the Demon Deacons’ lead to as little as 12 points midway through the second half before WFU’s size advantage and depth would prove to be too much to overcome.

“Again, we live and die by the three sometimes, and our shot selection hurt us badly in the second half.  We need to try to get our big men some touches, and we didn’t do that well tonight.” Collins said.

Leading the way for the Rams was sophomore guard Brian Fisher who recorded 18 points in a losing effort.  Fisher was joined Darius Floyd who recorded his first double-double of the season with 12 points and 10 rebounds and Jamal Durham who tallied 10 points.

Wake Forest was led by L.D. Williams who led three Demon Deacons in double-figures with 19 points and 13 rebounds.

The loss drops the Rams to 1-3 on the season while the Demon Deacons improve to 3-0 on the season with the win.