Raleigh, NC -  A second-half run by the host was too much to overcome as the Shaw University men's basketball team dropped their third straight contest on the road 81-66 against the Winston-Salam State University Rams Saturday afternoon inside the C.E. Gaines Center. 

Shaw (4-5, 0-3 CIAA) shot just 36% from the floor for the contest while connecting on just 6 of 19 outside shots while WSSU (8-4, 2-2 CIAA) finished the game shooting 54% including 47% from beyond the arc. 

WSSU jumped out to an early 8-2 lead before a three-pointer from Corey Rutherford tied the contest at 8-8. Things remained tight before a Rams run extended their lead to 22-14 with 10:47 left in the first half. The Bears battled back to even the score again at 27 with a layup from Rayshawn Neal with 4:56 left before halftime. The score would mirror itself two more times before WSSU pushed ahead 39-35 at the break. 

The Bears opened the second half determined to cut into the Rams lead trimming the score to 44-42 with just over 16 minutes left in the contest. Shaw kept things close for the next four minutes of play with WSSU ahead by a possession 49-47 with 11:12 remaining before the Rams used an 11-2 run to go ahead 60-49 before Caleb Simmons ended the run with a basket inside.

The WSSU lead ballooned to 68-51 forcing a Shaw timeout with 5:31 left proving to be enough to keep the Bears at bay as Shaw would be unable to get their deficit to single digits before eventually seeing their losing skid grow to three games with a final score of 81-66. 

Simmons led Shaw in scoring posting 15 points and 7 rebounds. Denari Grant followed with 12 points rounding out the double-figure scorers for the Bears. WSSU's Issac Parsons and Cameron Campbell led all scorers with 21 points each.

Shaw will look for a quick turnaround as the Bears return to the court Monday, January 10th as Shaw travels to Livingstone College. Tipoff is slated for 7:30 p.m. in Salisbury, NC.