Winston-Salem State, at this point of the season, has its best record since 1977-78 and will try to add a victory today at St. Augustine's.
Tipoff for the CIAA game is set for 4 p.m. at Emery Gymnasium in Raleigh.
The Rams (15-2, 1-0 Southern Division) will have a sense of what to expect because coach Ken Spencer of the Falcons (10-7, 0-1) is a former WSSU assistant. Spencer, in his second season, runs many of the same sets as coach Bobby Collins of WSSU.
"Ken Spencer has done a good job there," Collins said. "My hat goes off to him, but when we play them, friendship goes out the window, and we're going to compete, and his team is going to compete."
Spencer and Collins were high-school teammates in Southern Pines, and Spencer spent four seasons on the WSSU staff.
"We do run a lot of the same out of bounds plays and traps and things like that, so we will be familiar with each other," Spencer said, "but I'm sure Bobby has some new stuff, and I have done some different things, so it's not entirely the same."
The coaches stay in contact throughout the season, and today's match-up didn't stop their phone calls.
"I talked to him (today)," Spencer said of Collins on Thursday. "But I usually tell him I have to get off the phone because I have to watch film on them. And he tells me the same thing, so we are having fun with it."
The Falcons are coming off a 70-62 loss at crosstown rival Shaw, but at 10-7 are already ahead of last season's 9-18 finish.
"We've improved even though we do have 10 new players and have just two seniors, but we've already won more games than we did all of last season," Spencer said. "Our guys have a different attitude, and they are really receptive to competing hard in practice, and it carries over into games."
Like the Rams, the Falcons also have a deep rotation. Eleven players average 10 or more minutes a game, and Joel Kindred (12.5 ppg) and Tyquan Stroman (11.7 ppg) are the top scorers. Jonathan Crawley, a 6-foot-8, 340-pound former football player at WSSU, averages 8.5 minutes, 3.4 points and 2.4 rebounds as a reserve.
WSSU has won eight in a row and is coming off a 100-84 victory Tuesday against Washington Adventist. Wakefield Ellison scored 18 in the win, and the Rams cruised despite missing their first 10 shots.
Leading scorer Justin Glover (15.1 ppg) said that the Rams will be up to the challenge of playing in Emery, one of the smallest gyms in the CIAA.
"We're looking forward to it," Glover said, "and we know it's going to be a tough game, so we'll have to be prepared."
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