Johnson C. Smith women's basketball picked up its third straight victory and fifth in the last six games, downing Winston-Salem State 81-77.

With the win, JCSU improves to 15-12 overall, 12-5 in conference play and, most importantly for tournament seeding, 8-3 in Southern Division games.

JCSU was able to leapfrog the Rams into second place in the division thanks to a better overall conference winning percentage.

The loss drops WSSU to 15-12 oveerall, 11-6 in the CIAA and 8-3
 in the division.
 
Blaire Thomas scored a game-high 21 points to lead the Golden Bull effort. Malia Rivers (13 pts) and Le'Zarea Bowens (10 pts) came off the bench to push JCSU past the Rams.
 
Thomas and Bowens led the team in rebounds with eight boards each.
 
JCSU took advantage of 23 WSSU turnovers to score 38 points.  The Golden Bulls used a strong inside game to outscore the Rams 38-30 inside the painted area.
 
JCSU led throughout the game jumping out to a 24-15 first quarter lead extending their lead to 45-33 at halftime.
 
The teams played even in the third quarter and JCSU was able to withstand a fourth quarter WSSU rally to take homa an important road victory.
 
JCSU will close out its regular season on the road in Raleigh when they travel to meet Shaw University in Spaulding Gymnasium. Tip off is set for 2:oo p.m. Saturday afternoon.