Both the Winston-Salem State women and men picked up wins against Johnson C. Smith on Thursday night at C.E. Gaines Center.
The WSSU women, fresh off a heart-wrenching loss to Fayetteville State, cruised to a 71-55 win over the visitors from Charlotte.
Valencia Carroll led WSSU with 23 points off the bench. She hit 6-of-10 attempts from the 3-point line and pulled down five rebounds. Amaya Tucker added 18 points, hitting three of her six 3-point attempts as WSSU shot 10-for-22 from the 3-point line for the entire game. Tucker added four rebounds, four steals and four assists to just one turnover for WSSU, which improved to 11-7 on the season and 7-3 in CIAA play.
Johnson C. Smith was carried offensively by Shaniya Jones who put up 24 points in the losing effort.
The win kept the Winston-Salem State women in the race for the CIAA Southern Division lead. Fayetteville State holds an identical 3-1 record in division play, but its head-to-head win has it just in front of WSSU with less than a month to go in the race to Baltimore.
Winston-Salem State men put away JC Smith
The Winston-Salem State men looked to be in line to accomplish a similar margin of victory, but the feisty Johnson C. Smith team wouldn’t go away.
WSSU eventually pulled away for a 69-60 win over Johnson C. Smith, the third in a row over the visiting squad.
Guards Issac Parson and Samage Teel led the way for WSSU with 18 and 14 points, respectively. Teel added six assists with just one turnover. Center Jaylon Gibson scored 14 points and pulled down eight rebounds in 30 minutes.
The Rams got a big lift off the bench from Nate Springs, a 6’10 transfer from Kennessaw State. After missing most of the last two months with a leg injury he had his best game of the season with eight points in 10 minutes, including two 3-pointers, while adding four rebounds.
Johnson C. Smith fell to 6-12 on the season with the loss. Big man Augustine Ominu led the way with 20 points and seven rebounds before fouling out of the game.
Winston-Salem State improved to 14-5 on the season. The win along with Fayetteville State’s win over Claflin keeps WSSU just behind FSU which has a 7-3 CIAA record compared to WSSU’s 6-4 CIAA record. However, both teams are 3-1 in Southern Division play heading into Saturday