CIAA BASKETBALL ACTION

Lady Rams advance to quarterfinals

The Lady Rams of Winston-Salem State , seeded third in the Southern Division, were efficient in ousting the Lady Bulldogs of Bowie State, seeded sixth in the Northern Division. The Rams are playing with confidence under first-year head coach A.G. Hall “I think we have a young team and when you’re trying to build and you’re teaching, there are some moments when you wish that some things would happen faster than they do, but right now, we have a team that has a good understanding of what we want to do,” Hall said.

It was only two weeks ago that the Lady Rams (15-12 overall) stunned the nationally-ranked Shaw University Lady Bears, defending the Division II national champions, in Shaw’s own gym by eight points (68-60). That victory happened during the month of February when the Lady Rams played their best ball. They have won six of seven games this month including their third straight victory after beating Bowie State (7-17 overall). Their loss was at the hands of nationally-ranked Fayetteville State, and that was by four points.

A balanced offensive attack secured the win over Bowie State for the Lady Rams, who were led by 16 points from Dionna Scott. Taylar Wells came off the bench to add 12 points as seven players scored six or more points.
Keyrra Gillespie and Vanessa Weston both contributed eight points for the Lady Rams. Final score 73-56.

Virginia State Tops Livingstone , 57-50

Virginia State Lady Trojans, the #3 seed out of the North Division trailed Livingstone College, the #6 seed out of the South, 26-21 at halftime before eventually capping off a 57-50 victory. The Lady Trojans advance to the next round of the CIAA Tournament to take on Virginia Union University, the #2 seed from the Northern Division.

Photo Caption: Somalia McKennedy, a 5-foot-10 sophomore forward, came off the bench to pull down eight  rebounds and add seven points in the Rams’ opening CIAA win against Bowie State. (Joe Daniels/Carolina Peacemaker)