The Winston-Salem State Lady Rams came one step closer to claiming their first conference championship in school history, following a dominant display in their semifinal contest against Claflin.
It was a wire-to-wire performance for the CIAA South division champions, coming away unscathed in a 67-32 victory. This marks WSSU’s first championship game appearance in over a quarter-century.
Nevaeh Farmer was named the game’s MVP, posting a game-high 12 points, connecting on a pair of three-pointers, adding five rebounds, and three steals.
Maia Charles contributed a double-double of 10 points and 12 rebounds, including nine offensive rebounds.
Winston-Salem State had complete control of the game in the first half, overwhelming Claflin with maximum pressure on both ends of the floor.
Their defense fueled their offense, pushing the ball up the floor off rebounds and turnovers, catching the Panthers’ defense off balance and leading to easy buckets.
The Rams scored 22 of their 37 first-half points in the paint, including 10 points off turnovers.
They also controlled possessions by crashing the boards, nearly grabbing more offensive rebounds (10) than Claflin did total rebounds (11) in the half.
Claflin head coach Terrence Jenkins gave Winston-Salem State coach Tierra Terry credit for getting her team ready to play, stating that their energy was the biggest reason for their hot start.
“Hats off to Coach [Tierra] Terry and Winston for coming out with that energy and effort,” said Coach Jenkins. “The only thing Winston was doing was playing harder and playing tougher. In the first five minutes, we talk about the first five minutes all the time. We talk about keeping people in single-digits, and they kept us in single-digits three times. That was our Achilles heel.”
The Panthers did their best to show some fight in the third quarter, defending WSSU’s half-court sets well, forcing them to slow their pace and settle for three-pointers.
This allowed their offense a chance to get going, knocking down a trio of three-pointers, matching their field goal total from the first half.
According to Winston-Salem State head coach Tierra Terry, Claflin’s defensive adjustments had a lot to do with their offensive struggles in the third quarter.
“We talked about them zoning us, but we definitely came out and took some bad shots in the third quarter,” said Coach Terry. “Bad shots that, when someone is playing a zone, they get the rebound, and they take off. So we definitely have to work on that execution piece. I just thought we started off too, I don’t know if the word is calm, but we weren’t in attack mode in the third quarter. We saw the zone, and we started going as slow as the zone was making us go instead of attacking those gaps as we were doing before. So we have to make that adjustment.”
However, their efforts were too little and too late as, despite the Rams’ shooting struggles in the period, they continued to challenge Claflin’s defense at the rims, getting to the line and building on their lead.
Winston-Salem State will now await the winner of the semifinal matchup between CIAA North division champion Bowie State and CIAA South rival Fayetteville State.
The Rams got the best of Bowie State in their only matchup this season, beating them 68-58 on the road in December.
Meanwhile, they split their season series with Fayetteville State, claiming a 50-36 win the last time they faced each other on February 7.
