Senators get back on track with win over Roane State

MORRISTOWN, TN – Deovaunta Williams poured in 25 points on Wednesday evening for Walters State as the Senators got a much-needed victory over Roane State, 73-58. 

With the win, Walters State improves to 11-7 on the season and 4-4 in TCCAA play. 

"I thought our kids played well," Walters State coach Bill Carlyle said. "I thought they played hard and smart. We handled the situation pretty well. We just need to keep working on correcting tactical errors. It's a big win in the conference though. We had to have it." 

Williams led all scorers in the game with his 25 points. Williams made seven two-pointers to go along with three 3-pointers. 

Along with Williams, Josh Jerome had 14 points while Jared Carter added 15. Other scorers for the Senators were Riley Cooper with eight, Ty Hurst with five, Izaiha Bredwood with four and Ronnie Thompson with two. 

The victory was one that could not have come at a better time for the Senators following a tough conference loss on the road to Southwest last Saturday.

"We were struggling, so that was just a great win for us," Carlyle said. "Roane has a really good basketball team, but I thought we took them out of what they wanted to do." 

Despite the big win, it was Roane State who got off to a quick start in the opening minutes as they built up a 12-6 lead. Walters State would respond though, going on a 12-0 run. The run started with four straight from Jerome before Williams hit a 3-pointer. Jerome scored again before Carter finished off the run with a 3-pointer to make it 18-12.

Roane State finally got back on the scoreboard with a basket before Carter scored again. Thompson and Williams would then run off a quick 7-0 run and suddenly, it was 27-16 in favor of the Senators.

The rest of the half was more of the same as Walters State closed strong. A Williams 3-pointer made it 34-24 at the break.

In the second half, Walters State came out strong as Carter hit two key 3-pointers that pushed the lead to 14. Roane State would hang around for awhile and actually got the lead down to seven at 55-48. However, the Senators would go on a quick 10-0 run led by four points from Williams and the lead was 17 again. 

The Senators would keep their foot on the gas the rest of the way as Williams scored the final four points for Walters State in the 15-point win.

UP NEXT:

Walters State will be back in action on Saturday as they travel to take on Jackson State in another TCCAA matchup. Tip is set for 5 p.m.

Rob Harvey

Walters State Community College

Sports Information Director

Cell: (423) 779-8880

Email: sportsinfo@ws.edu

Website: www.ws.edu/athletics