Winston-Salem State got a little more than it bargained for on Tuesday night against scrappy Washington Adventist.
The Rams had to dig deep, and once they finally found their shooting stroke they came away with a 100-84 victory at the Gaines Center.
It's never easy to play an out-of-conference game during the heat of the conference season, but the Rams made it work. Coach Bobby Collins said a fired-up crowd helped them along.
"Our fans were great tonight," Collins said about the spirited crowd of around 2,000.
His team, however, was out of sorts early and wound up missing its first 10 shots as the Shock (7-11) carved out a 10-point lead.
"I remedied that situation early, because I told them we had to play harder," Collins said.
The Rams (15-2) won their eighth in a row. They will get back into CIAA play on Saturday at 4 p.m. at St. Augustine's.
Wakefield Ellison led the way, coming off the bench with a career-high 18 points, five rebounds, four steals and one assist in his best game since transferring from East Carolina. He got it going late in the half, scoring seven points in three minutes as the Rams took their first lead.
"I got in and I picked up that quick three-point play," Ellison said. "And that got my blood pumping and I was able to go from there."
Ellison played a season-high 23 minutes, but others also had solid games. Justin Glover had 17 points and Joe Thompson added 16 points and five rebounds. Tyre Desmore and WyKevin Bazemore scored 13 points each.
The bigger Rams had their way on the inside as Bazemore had 12 rebounds and Stephon Platt added six.
"I was happy to see Joe Thompson get something inside and we know that Nequan Melvin and Stephon Platt can give us something down there as well, so this prepared us for later games because we are going to need them," Collins said.
The Rams found their stroke to start the second half, hitting eight of their first nine shots. When Kimani Hunt scored on a layup after a nice pass from Glover, the Rams led 50-44.
Thompson made a free throw a little later to push the lead to nine.
"At halftime, coach just adjusted the game plan a little bit against such a scrappy team like that," Glover said.
Coach Patrick Crarey of the Shock, who picked up two technical fouls and the automatic ejection with 1:46 left, used just seven players, and his team ran out of gas. When Platt scored with 9:22 to go, the Rams had their biggest lead at 13.
"We just had to attack inside-out, and that's what we tried to do," Thompson said. "We always start out slow, but as we get a feel for the game we usually start executing a lot better."
The Rams shot 46 percent and went to the free-throw line 43 times, making 31 foul shots. Collins wanted the Rams to attack more on the inside, and once they did they were able to take control of the game.
"This was the most fun I've ever had coaching," Collins said about the fans. "Even though we didn't play too well, the fans made it fun and it was a great atmosphere."
Collins admitted that scheduling a nonconference game this time of the year can backfire.
"This time of year it's very difficult," Collins said, "but everything works out because when we play Johnson C. Smith, they have a point guard (Trevin Parks) who is just as quick as (the Shock's Jamie Newton)."
Six players scored in double figures for the perimeter-oriented Shock, led by Brandon Washington with 18 points. Newton added 16 points, but the 5-7 senior was just 3-for14 shooting. The Shock were 8-of-25 on 3-pointers and had 18 turnovers.
"It was difficult playing out of conference because the energy level wasn't the same," Glover said, "but when our fans got into it, that kind of pumped us up and we were able to run away with it."
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