Winston-Salem State finishes regular-season in style with win over Livingstone at Joel Coliseum

The Rams ended their regular-season in style by beating Livingstone at their home away from home. With limited capacity at the Gaines Center of around 2,600, school officials, thanks to Wake Forest, moved the game to Joel Coliseum and it paid off.

The lower bowl seats around 6,300, and about 4,500 were there to see the Rams beat the Blue Bears 65-56 on Saturday afternoon in their final regular-season game.

Doing the damage on the outside for the Rams was Samage Teel, who scored 13 points. Jaylan Alston had 16 points, nine rebounds and was 8 for 10 on free-throw attempts. And doing damage on the inside was Jaylon Gibson, who scored 12 points and had eight rebounds before fouling out late.

Gibson’s dunk with 7:15 to play gave the Rams at 47-40 lead and Coach James Stinson of the Blue Bears had to call a timeout.

A little later, Teel’s steal and layup with 6:50 to go gave the Rams a 49-40 lead. They eventually stretched it to 11 points and never looked back.

The Rams ended their regular season 17-8 overall and 6-4 in the Southern Division. The Blue Bears finished 11-14 and 4-6.

On three different occasions, fans had to be separated and several were escorted from the building. The three game officials stopped play with 14:55 left in the game, and Athletics Director Etienne Thomas of WSSU addressed the crowd on a microphone.

“Sit down and enjoy this game or go home,” Thomas said.

In the first half, the Blue Bears had as much as a 10-point lead. But by halftime the Rams had cut the lead to 28-24. Both teams struggled from the field, combining to go 18 for 63 and each hit just two 3-pointers in the first 20 minutes.

The Rams shot just 39% from the field, but from the free-throw line they shot a season-best 84% — making 16 of 19. They also forced the Blue Bears into 23 turnovers.

Xavier Fennell, one of three seniors along with Jaylin Parker and Jon Hicklin who were playing their final home game, added nine points and four steals.

Winston-Salem State’s women took charge early and beat Livingstone 62-42 for the second time during the regular-season.

With just seven healthy players available in Coach L’Tona Lamonte’s rotation, the Rams ended the regular season winning three of their past four games.

It was also senior night for the women and the program honored four — Valencia Carroll, O’Shea Hatley, Dorian Sharp and Kendra Ross. But because of injuries only one of them dressed to play in the game. Carroll was the lone senior who got to take the court for her final regular-season game in a WSSU uniform.

“It was about playing together, and we wanted to get our defense set and then our offense would take care of itself,” Lamonte said.

Hadiya Balser led the way for the Rams with 15 points, 12 rebounds, two assists, two blocked shots and two steals. Amaya Tucker and Prophet Sheffield each added 10 points and Carroll had eight points, seven rebounds and four steals.

The Rams shot just 36% from the field but were 6 of 10 on 3-pointers. The Rams struggled from the line, going just 16 of 32, but it hardly mattered.

Sha’Terra Ferrell led the way for the Blue Bears with 10 points and five rebounds.

As for Carroll being the lone senior who was able to play, it was important that they won for the final time at home even if it wasn’t at the Gaines Center.

“You want to win that senior game and sometimes it doesn’t work out, so it was a big deal and I thought we had a good crowd in the lower bowl so it was exciting,” Lamonte said. “This was a good win for us.”

The Rams end the regular-season with a 15-9 overall record and 7-3 in the Southern Division.

The Blue Bears are 11-17 and 5-5 in Southern Division play.

The CIAA Tournament is scheduled to begin next week at CFG Bank Arena in Baltimore. Pairings for the women’s and men’s tournaments are expected to be released on Sunday morning.

The WSSU women will be the third seed and won’t play until Thursday.