The Lincoln University men's basketball team was unable to overcome a poor start and the hot shooting of Winston Salem State University as the Rams cruised to a 77-64 win Thursday night at Manuel Rivero Hall.

The Lions fall to 2-8 overall and 1-1 in Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association games.  The Rams improve to 5-4 overall and 1-0 in league play.

Khayyir Laws (Chester, Pa./Delaware County Community College) led the Lions with 15 points (6-8 FG, 3-5 FT).  Jordan Watson (Philadelphia, Pa./Springside Chestnut Hill Academy) added 12 points to join Laws as the only two Lincoln players in double figures.  Vernon Young (Chicago, Ill./University of St. Mary) led the team with seven rebounds.  Malachi Seney (Philadelphia, Pa./Harford Community College) dished out a team high three assists.

Ameer Jackson led all players with 18 points and 10 rebounds.  William Crandall added 17 points while Nate Long chipped in ten.  Jackson and Julius Barnes had four assists apiece.

A Laws jumper opened the scoring but the Lions missed their next nine shots allowing the Rams to jump out to an 11-3 lead at the 13:29 mark.  WSSU, after missing their first four shots from the field connected on five of their next seven over a four minute stretch.  Umar Saaba (Philadelphia, Pa./Boys Latin HS)'s traditional three-point play cut the lead to 11-6 and a layup from Laws closed the gap to 11-8.  WSSU's lead oscillated between three and six points until another Laws layup closed the gap to two 24-22 with 5:46 left in the half.   A 16-4 uprising by the Rams followed and the Lions found themselves trailing by 14, 40-26 at the break.

Winston-Salem shot 63% in the first half (17-27) while Lincoln shot just 38.5% (10-26).

The Rams extended their run with a 5-2 start to the second half, pushing their lead to 45-28; their largest of the game.  WSSU still led by 16, 58-42 when the Lions went on an 8-0 run to cut the deficit to single digits, 58-50.  Seney started the run with a traditional three-point play followed by a layup from Antonio DePina (Wilmington, Del./Kutztown University).  Sean James (Newark, Del./Iona College) finished the run with his own traditional three point play.  The eight point deficit would be as close as the Lions would get, albeit having several chances to cut the gap further but were unable to get shots to fall.

Winston Salem finished the game shooting 56% (28-50) from the field.  Lincoln, while taking 14 more shots, connected on just 24 of 64 from the field (37.5%).  Neither team shot exceptionally well from the free throw line with the Rams making 64% (16-25) and the Lions 61.9% (13-21). The Rams made two more three-pointers and held a slim 38-36 rebounding advantage.  The Rams also committed four more turnovers than the Lions (16-12).

Lincoln returns to action on Saturday, December 17, 2016 when they host Johnson C. Smith University in their third CIAA game of the season.  Tipoff is set for 2:00 p.m.