The 85th meeting of the Winston-Salem State Rams and North Carolina A&T series featured exciting end-to-end college basketball action that concluded with a 71-63 victory for the Rams at the LJVM Coliseum Annex on Saturday evening.

The game came down to some clutch free throw shooting by the Rams

The game supplied nine lead changes and two ties and came down to some clutch WSSU free throw shooting to pull out the win. As a team, the Rams hit 9-of-11 free throws in the final minute of play, including going 3-of-4 on a pair of technical fouls on the North Carolina A&T bench.

As a team, the Rams had one of their best shooting performances of the season shooting a scorching 53 percent from the floor, including shooting 60 percent from the field in the second half.

Senior forward Darrell Wonge poured in 16 points along with three assists for the Rams. Winston-Salem native Jamal Durham led the way for WSSU with a team-high 17 points. Senior guard Roy Peake added 14 points and a game-high six assists while freshman Paul Davis chipped in 11 points and eight rebounds.

The Rams came out firing taking an 8-3 lead following a lay-up by Davis with 16:27 left in the first half. However, the Aggies would bounce back, with their own 8-2 run earning their first lead of the game, 11-10, with 14:22 left in the first half.

A thunderous dunk by Durham at the 9:57 mark gave the Rams their biggest lead of the half, 24-16 but the Aggies fought back to take the 34-31 halftime lead.

The second half turned out to be a much different story, however, as the Rams battled back to reclaim the lead with 14:57 left to play (37-36). WSSU would push their lead up to seven, 48-41 with 9:13 left to play and in similar manner to the first half the Aggies clawed their way back to take the lead (54-53) with 5:16 left to play.

A Davis jumper a few seconds later would put the Rams back on top, this time for good. The Rams fought off the pesky Aggies in the final minutes of the game, allowing North Carolina A&T to come no closer than two points in the final five minutes of the game.

With the win, the Rams inch one game closer to the Aggies, who hold a 48-36 lead in the rivalry, while WSSU head coach Bobby Collins improves his record against the Aggies to 7-2 all-time.