March 3, 2008

Box Score

Daytona Beach, Fla. - Forty minutes wasn't enough. Neither was 45 minutes. It took 50 minutes for the outcome of the Bethune-Cookman versus Winston-Salem State men's basketball contest to be decided on Monday evening in Daytona Beach, Fla. before the Rams earned a 76-71 double-overtime victory over the Wildcats in a thriller that saw the Rams erase an eight-point lead at the end of regulation to force a pair of overtimes en route to the win.

10 lead changes and seven ties, 40 minutes of regulation time and a pair of five minute overtime sessions added up to a five-point WSSU (12-16) win as the Rams snapped a one-game losing skid and salvaged a split in their annual road trip to the state of Florida.

The Rams started the contest on a 9-2 run as they opened up a seven point lead over the startled Wildcats. After that, the seven-point early lead would be WSSU's largest margin of the game as Bethune-Cookman (11-19), a team that was only 6-8 at home headed into the contest, responded with a run of their own as they closed the gap, eventually taking the lead in the final three minutes of the first half.

On the heels of their 8-0 run to close the first half, the Wildcats held a three-point advantage, up 32-29 headed into the locker room at halftime.

Second half action was nearly dead even for the first 15 minutes of play with the two teams separated by less than eight points for the entire period of play.

A Dewayne Pettus jumper with 2:40 remaining put the Wildcats in the lead by six points, ahead 60-54 as Bethune-Cookman looked to be inching ever closer to a season sweep of the Rams, a team that they had defeated 60-50 in Winston-Salem, NC on February 4.

Looks proved to be deceiving for the Wildcats however as the Rams used a pair of Roy Peake free throws, a pair of Darrell Wonge free throws, a Wildcat turnover and a Jamal Durham jumper to mount a 6-0 run in little more than a minute of play as they tied the game 60-60.

Tied at 60 all, the Rams very nearly won the game in regulation as a Darrell Wonge jumper as time expired was off the mark and the two teams headed to overtime.

WSSU jumped out to a four-point lead in overtime before the Wildcats, much like the Rams did in regulation, mounted a challenge and retook the lead late in the first overtime session.

A Darius Floyd jumped with under one minute to play in the extra frame forced a second, and final, overtime period as WSSU was forced to play an second five-minute period to earn a victory.

The second overtime session proved to belong squarely to WSSU as the Rams closed out the final three minutes of the contest on a 6-1 run en route to the 76-71 double-overtime victory.

Senior forward Darrell Wonge and sophomore guard Darius Floyd led the Rams with 17 points each as they were two of five WSSU players to record double-digit scoring nights. Joining Wonge and Floyd in double-figures was Jamal Durham with 14 points and Brian Fisher and Paul Davis who each tallied 10 points in the win.

Leading Bethune-Cookman was Dewayne Pettus who paced all scorers with 22 points. Dominique Whatley chipped in with 13 points and Kevan Creppy and Jordan Carrier each tallied 10 points in the losing effort.

The next challenge for the Wildcats will be traveling to Tallahassee to take on rival Florida A&M in the annual end-of-year contest to be played on Thursday, Mar. 6 at 7:30 pm inside the Gaither Athletic Center on the campus of FAMU. For more information, please call the B-CU Office of Sports Information at (386) 481-2206.