Charlotte, NC - Two teams entered tonight's contest looking to end losing streaks. 13th ranked Johnson & Wales (8-17), losers of 4 in a row would get no solace from Columbia International (6-12), who'd dropped 5 straight themselves. The game wasn't decided until the final tenth of a second, as the Rams prevailed 79-77

Columbia International jumped out to a 15-4 lead in the first five and a half minutes of the game. The Rams were able to hold the Wildcats at bay for much of the rest of the half with their hot shooting (57.7% for the half). JWU was able to close to within four, 30-26 on a DeQuincey Bennett three point play at the 3:36 mark. The Rams immediately answered with five straight to push the lead back to nine. The Wildcats again cut the gap to 4 with under a minute left, but CIU's Ryan Anderson hit a 3 just before halftime that gave the Rams a 41-34 advantage at recess.

A 10-4 run by the Rams' Joe Isenhour, who led all scorers with 27, pushed the CIU lead to 14 at 54-40. The Wildcats slowly began chipping away at the deficit, cutting it to four over the next five minutes. A Hursel Forbes layup at the 8:37 mark brought JWU as close as they'd been since tipoff. The Rams held off the Wildcat surge for another 3 and a half minutes before a Kindrick Anderson layup knotted the score at 65 with 5:51 left. The teams traded baskets virtually every possession from then on out. Forbes again tied the game at 77 with :51 left, and the Wildcats had a chance to win after forcing a Ram turnover in the last 10 seconds. Kindrick Anderson's layup with 6 seconds left was no good, and Isenhour converted on the other end, just beating the buzzer for the 79-77 win.

The Wildcats put 4 players in double-figures, led by Joshua Cohen's 17 points. Anderson had 15, while Bennett added 12, and Forbes 10.

JWU is home again on Saturday as they host College of Faith at 3:00pm.