Winston-Salem State took a break from its CIAA schedule Monday night but couldn't completely coast against Brevard at the Gaines Center.
The Rams (13-3) had their inside game working and hit enough from the outside to carve out a 77-64 victory. It was their third game in five days, but they showed no signs of fatigue.
"It was a hard game, and it's hard just playing a team that's not in your conference," said center Paul Davis, who finished with 14 points, 11 rebounds and three blocked shots. "It was a different style of play, and they aren't as fast as most CIAA teams, but they shoot the ball really well…. We played a good team tonight."
The Rams shot well, too, hitting 53 percent and getting most of their points inside.
Coach Bobby Collins of the Rams said: "We wanted to get better tonight, but I don't know what we got better at besides getting the ball on the inside."
Shelton Carter led the Rams, who never trailed, with 18 points and added eight rebounds. Lamar Monger followed his 30-point game Saturday against Fayetteville State with 16 points and six rebounds.
The Rams led by as many as 13 in the first half, but watched the Tornados (7-6) storm back and close to 48-47 after Gaither Hendrix (18 points) made consecutive 3-pointers with less than 11 minutes to play. Guard Josh Roper led Brevard, last season's South Atlantic League champion, with 21 points, eight rebounds, four assists and six steals.
After Collins called a timeout, the Rams went out, played tighter defense and went on a 13-0 run to turn the tide. Monger drove into the teeth of the defense for a layup, was fouled and made the free throw to start the run. He added a 3-pointer, then capped the run with two free throws.
Guards Andrew Jackson and Marcus Wells did a good job working the ball inside to Davis, Corey Morris, Stephon Platt and McIntoche Alcius.
"I talked about that beforehand, we wanted to get the ball inside instead of just settling for jumpers," Collins said. "I told my perimeter guys don't lose your aggressiveness to shoot the ball but look inside to the post."
Jackson, who battled foul trouble in the second half, had four assists. Wells had three.
"We actually started to get better stops on defense during that little stretch," Jackson said of the 13-0 run. "They were getting great looks and getting a lot of layups, but once we decided to limit their touches and get in their faces, we were much better overall."
The Rams opened their biggest lead when a layup by Jackson made it 65-49 with 6:27 left. The Tornados cut it to eight with 3:25 left but came no closer.
Davis, 6-9, said that with the Rams' decided height advantage, getting the ball inside was important.
"I have to get credit to the guards because they got the ball to us on the inside because we were bigger," Davis said. "Coach wanted the big men to eat, and that's what the guards did, they fed us the ball."
The Rams offset 17 turnovers with a 46-30 advantage in rebounding.
"The one thing I wasn't pleased with was our turnovers," Collins said. "We had them at crucial times, and instead of putting them away, we let them hang around, and it was because of our turnovers. We have to do a better job of that."
Collins has been searching for better play on defense and was mostly pleased with Monday's effort.
"We defended better," Collins said. "We forced them to take some 30-footers, and if they were going to make all of those, they would have won. So we didn't allow them on the inside too much, and that was a big factor."
WSSU will be back in action Saturday at home for a key CIAA divisional game against St. Augustine's.
jdell@wsjournal.com
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