The Winston-Salem State University women’s basketball team had its most remarkable season in the history of the North Carolina historically Black university (HBCU).
After finishing 7-20 last year, they reached the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Division II tournament in the debut season of head coach Tierra Terry, who took over the position at her alma mater in April 2025. The Rams went 28-4 overall and 14-2 in the conference, earning the program’s first-ever Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association (CIAA) Tournament championship as Terry garnered the CIAA Coach of the Year award
A heart-wrenching 65-64 road loss to Indiana University of Pennsylvania Monday night in the Atlantic Region Championship ended the Rams’ inspirational run, but they established a foundation for sustained success. A cornerstone is sophomore forward Maia Charles, a Queens product who logged a double-double — 16 points and 10 rebounds — in No. 3 (regional ranking) WSSU’s 88-71 first-round win over No. 6 Glenville State University last Friday and paced the Rams with 19 points in a 67-48 victory against top-seeded Gannon University on Saturday. Charles recorded a team high 13 rebounds in the defeat to No. 2 IUP, who at 29-3 advanced to the Elite 8.
Charles said attending an HBCU was a long-held desire.
“I always wanted to go to an HBCU. During my recruitment in high school I was looking for an HBCU to go to,” Charles expressed to the AmNews. She played one year at Virginia Union University, earning CIAA Rookie of the Year, before following Terry, a former VUU coach, to WSSU. “The energy, especially at the home games, is something different. The support is crazy.”
Charles loves the sense of community and welcoming environment at WSSU. The 2024-25 season was a struggle for the Rams, so Charles understood she was part of creating a new identity for the women’s basketball team. “Coming in and trying to change the narrative about us. We were really working hard all season.”
Born in Brooklyn and raised in Queens, Charles, 19, was certainly aware of high-profile names from the borough like New York basketball icons Tina Charles (no relation) and Chamique Holdsclaw. She wasn’t one to play pick-up in the park, but she did love AAU basketball, hooping with the Positive Direction program and having the same coach, JoAnn Pinnock, for both AAU and her high school, The Mary Lewis Academy.
Charles said her development as a college prospect proverbially happened overnight, but acknowledged it was actually days of hard work, which she continues to put in.
“Basically discipline, just knowing what my team needs from me and knowing what I have to do,” Charles said. “If they want me to rebound, I’m going to rebound. If they need me to make layups, I’m going to do that.”
That sense of discipline extends to her studies. Charles is a biology major intent on going to medical school and becoming an OB/GYN. “Being an athlete, you know how to be so disciplined, and that helps in school,” she said. “Someone can tell you to do something and you’re already on it.”