For about eight minutes on Tuesday night Winston-Salem State went toe-to-toe with Wake Forest, but there ain't gonna be no rematch.
In the final Twin City Shootout after a six-year run, the Rams didn't have enough transition defense or any inside offense as the Deacons ran away with a 76-52 victory at Joel Coliseum.
Coach Bobby Collins of the Rams could only shake his head about the lack of transition defense.
"That was the biggest thing," Collins said. "We didn't get back on defense, and it seemed like every fast break they had they scored on."
The Deacons wound up with eight dunks and had 21 fast-break points. On the flip side the Rams failed to get any fast-break points.
Power forward McIntoche Alcius of the Rams said he had little space down low.
"They were just coming out from all over the place," Alcius said about the Deacons frontcourt players of David Weaver, Chas McFarland and Tony Woods. "I got by one of them, then there's another one right there and then there's another big guy on the back side so I had no where to go. They were blocking a lot of shots."
The Deacons had nine blocked shots with Woods leading the way with four and Ty Walker, another 7-footer who played just nine minutes, came in during late and had three blocks.
With nothing available on the inside the Rams were forced to hoist a lot of 3-pointers. They wound up firing 26 of them, but hitting just four.
"We went inside and they were so big, and some calls were questionable, but this is the ACC," Collins said. "It was hard to go inside and we couldn't get it inside to Corey (Morris) or Paul ( Davis) because they are just beefier and bigger."
It wasn't long after the game was tied at 15 that the Deacons flexed their muscles and went on a 14-0 run as the Rams failed to scratch on nine straight possessions. With the comfortable lead the Deacons leaned on their depth to wear the Rams down.
"They got most of their points in the transition and that really killed us," Alcius said. "And once they got the lead it was hard to get back into it."
Freshman point guard Marcus Wells, who had nine points in 32 minutes with two assists and three turnovers, said that the big arena and playing an ACC school was a little nerve-wracking.
"I was a little nervous because I had a shaky game the other night," Wells said. "My main focus was taking care of the ball and that's what I tried to do…. Our transition defense was lacking because you have to sprint back and there are a deadly team in transition."
Wells and Alcius agreed that this game should help the Rams become a better team down the road.
Collins said that one positive was how his team battled on the boards. The Deacons only had a 40-33 advantage in rebounding.
"I thought we did some good things," Collins said. "Coming in Wake has been out-rebounding their opponents by 20, and we stayed with them on the boards."
The Rams will also play Maryland, UNC Charlotte and Georgia Tech later in the season.
"You can see we aren't that far away," Collins said. "We just need a little more discipline, and we need to execute our sets a little better. We can't let teams dictate what we do."
jdell@wsjournal.com
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