WS Chronicle

By Derwin Montgomery

The Winston-Salem Chronicle

With one regular-season game left on the schedule, the Rams are 23-2 overall and 14-1 in CIAA play, riding a seven-game win streak and still unbeaten at home (13-0), according to WSSU athletics.  They also sit atop the CIAA South standings at 14-1, putting them in position for a top seed as the conference heads into its signature week. 

And the wins have already rewritten the record book.

Earlier this month, Winston-Salem State’s 55-40 victory over Claflin pushed the Rams to 21-2, which HBCU Sports reported as a new single-season program record for wins.  Two days later, a 78-40 rout of Shaw delivered what HBCU Sports described as the program’s “regular-season record” for victories — and sealed a perfect 13-0 home slate. 

Now, the question isn’t whether this group is historic. It’s how far it can carry Winston-Salem when the CIAA Tournament tips off Feb. 24-28 at CFG Bank Arena in Baltimore. 

Built on defense — and the details that travel

WSSU’s most consistent identity has been defense, the kind that turns possessions into pressure and pressure into points.

In a Feb. 18 road win at Johnson C. Smith, WSSU forced 27 turnovers and finished with 17 steals, while turning those mistakes into 29 points, WSSU reported.  Maia Charles scored 25 points in that game, with Nevaeh Farmer adding 13 and Breonna Roaf 10, according to the game recap. 

Across the CIAA season, the Rams’ statistical profile matches what the eye test shows: among the conference’s best scoring defenses (52.0 points allowed per game) and a team that consistently wins the rebounding battle.  The Rams also lead the league in offensive rebounds per game, a trademark that creates extra chances when shots don’t fall. 

That combination — forcing turnovers, defending without fouling, and generating second shots — is exactly what tends to translate in tournament basketball, where legs get heavy and possessions tighten.

From preseason “seventh” to the top of the South

What makes this run hit even harder in Winston-Salem is how different the storyline was back in October.

At CIAA Media Day, WSSU was picked to finish seventh in the league’s predicted order of finish, according to a WSSU athletics release recapping the conference’s preseason selections. 

Four months later, the standings tell a different truth. WSSU leads the CIAA South at 14-1, ahead of Fayetteville State (12-3), with the tournament just days away. 

For fans who pack the C.E. Gaines Center — and for alumni who treat CIAA week like a family reunion with a bracket — it’s a familiar HBCU lesson: preseason projections don’t play defense, and they don’t rebound.

What happens next, and what’s at stake

WSSU closes the regular season Saturday, Feb. 21, at Livingstone, a final tune-up before postseason seeding is finalized. 

In plain terms: CIAA teams are seeded for the conference tournament based on their conference records, and those seeds determine first-round matchups in Baltimore. With WSSU sitting on a one-loss conference record and holding the South’s top spot, the Rams have put themselves in position to enter Baltimore with one of the best résumés in the bracket. 

The tournament itself runs Feb. 24-28 at CFG Bank Arena, with the CIAA framing the week as both championship basketball and a cultural homecoming — “history, legacy and Black excellence,” in the conference’s words. 

That matters for Winston-Salem beyond wins and losses.

CIAA week is a stage where HBCU pride becomes public: bands, step, alumni networks, vendors and community institutions all converge in one city, with Baltimore leaders and media regularly noting the scale of the crowds and the spending they bring.  For WSSU — a public HBCU with deep roots in East Winston and a legacy that has long linked athletics to community identity — this season’s run adds another reason for Rams supporters to show up and be seen.

A season that already counts — and a tournament that can define it

WSSU’s record, its home dominance, and its place atop the South have already shifted the conversation around the program. 

But CIAA history is full of teams who learned the hard way that February doesn’t care what you did in December — and full of champions who used one week in Baltimore to cement a legacy.

WSSU has done the first part: build a record-setting season. Now comes the part that will be remembered in barbershops, living rooms and alumni group chats across Winston-Salem: what they do when the bracket starts and every night can be the last.

Next up: at Livingstone, Feb. 21, before the CIAA Tournament begins Feb. 24 in Baltimore.