MURFREESBORO – Brrrrr.

A cold shooting night that could be compared to the frosty evenings of our winter weather struck the Chowan University women’s basketball team Thursday night and it ended in a 72-47 win for visiting Winston-Salem State.

The loss in Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association (CIAA) play left the Hawks at 1-2 in the league and dipped them below .500 on the season to 6-7.

Leading with nine and a half minutes to play in the first half Chowan didn’t score again until a minute and a half remained in the frame and the Hawks never caught up in the second half.

WSSU out-rebounded Chowan for the game, 60-39.

Pre-season All-CIAA pick, Talaya Lynch, was the only Hawks player in double-figures, netting 20 points; but the normally deadly three-point shooter was only 2-for-10 from behind the bent-shooting line.

Jasmine Newkirk had 18 points to lead Winston-Salem State while teammate LaQuanda Williams had 12 points to go with a dozen rebounds.

“At times I thought we had a couple of spurts in the game,” said eighth-year coach, Pat Mashuda, “but when we’re not aggressive in getting to the paint and working hard to get our teammates shots then it’s really a challenge for us.”

Ranked 19th in the nation among NCAA Division-II teams in field-goal percentage defense the Hawks were on point in holding the Lady Rams to under 36 percent shooting for the game.

Also the normally-reliable pre-season All-CIAA pick, senior sharp-shooter Ransheeda Jennings – who entered the game ranked 12th in the league in scoring – found herself double-teamed for much of the night and finished with just six points, all coming at the free throw line.

Winston-Salem took a lead of six points twice in the first five and a half minutes of the contest, but Chowan fought back.  Led by Lynch, the Hawks tied the game, 10-10 at the 12:20 mark.

Less than a minute later, Jennings made 1-of-2 free throws for an 11-10 Chowan lead.

And then came the ‘Big Chill’.

Chowan missed all 13 of its field goal attempts for the next 10 minutes. Winston-Salem State built up a lead of as much as 13 before a Janelle Murphy three-pointer got it down to a ten-point lead, 24-14, at halftime.

Winston-Salem State came out firing in the second half.  A 12-2 Lady Rams run upped their lead to 20, 36-16, before Chowan began to chip away.

It began with the Hawks being perfect at the free throw line, including Jennings going 4-for-4, to get it back to a 15-point deficit.

During what would be an 8-4 Chowan run, Lynch scored eight points that included a pair of three-pointers; the last of which left Chowan only five points in the hole, 40-35.

Winston-Salem responded with a 7-0 run and Chowan never caught back up. The Lady Rams would led by 25 points twice the rest of the way, including at the final buzzer.

“The issue wasn’t defense.” said Mashuda, “and it usually isn’t with us; giving up 60 points is okay for us, but scoring 40 is not, and that’s really where we struggled.”

The Hawks suffered another setback Saturday when Shaw University took a CIAA victory by a final of 75-67.