Winston-Salem State coach Tierra Terry made history. Now she wants a CIAA title.

Winston-Salem State University head women’s basketball coach Tierra Terry remembers how it feels to leave the Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association (CIAA) tournament without a championship trophy.

As a member of Winston-Salem State’s women’s basketball team from 2004-08, she vividly remembers the Rams falling short of the 2005 CIAA title game during her freshman year after losing by one point in the semifinals. The program never advanced to a conference championship game during her collegiate career.

Years later, while Terry was an assistant on the Rams’ coaching staff from 2012-15, they again failed to reach the CIAA championship game.

“I’ve been on a redemption tour ever since,” she said.

Now, in her first season as head coach at her alma mater, Terry returns to the conference from a different vantage point. Winston-Salem State enters the 2026 CIAA tournament this week in Baltimore as the conference’s Southern Division co-champion, having authored the best season in program history.

Under Terry, who was named CIAA Coach of the Year on Sunday, the Rams secured the program’s first 21-win season, a conference-best 16-game win streak and the No. 1 seed in the CIAA’s Southern Division. She believes the program also could win its first conference championship.

“We have one more thing we’ve got to do, and we have to stay super focused on that goal,” Terry said. “We have to play Saturday night [in the championship game]. We have to, after all this hard work we’ve poured into this. … There’s no choice. Like, we are going to will ourselves into it.”

Terry said returning to Winston-Salem State meant everything to her because the school took a chance on her at every stage of her career — as a player, assistant and now head coach. Despite previously coaching at Virginia Union University, another CIAA institution, Terry has always outwardly supported the “Ramily,” Winston-Salem State’s fan and alumni base.

Terry said her five seasons at Virginia Union, where she compiled a 60-51 overall record, prepared her to rebuild the Rams this season.

“I think you learn in the first rebuild how to do things to help yourself rebuild another program. Rebuilding is tough,” Terry said. “I just came in with a mentality like, ‘I don’t care if it’s Year 1. This is my school, and I’m here to, you know, make it proud.’”

Terry’s coaching philosophy hasn’t changed. She places a strong emphasis on defense and discipline, and when assembling her roster, she recruited players who aligned with her vision for the team.

“I don’t sugarcoat,” Terry said. “I’m going to tell you exactly what it is. And I think that helped them trust, too, because they’re like, ‘Oh, she’s really doing what she said she was going to do.’ … What it takes to play for me: a lot of that’s mental toughness and people that love the game, like, really love it. I don’t have to force you to get in the gym and be great.”

Winston-Salem State’s roster has five returners from a season ago, key transfers and freshmen. Terry brought 6-foot-3 forward Maia Charles, the 2025 CIAA Rookie of the Year, and guard Ah’Kiyah Pye from Virginia Union as foundational pieces for the Rams.

While Charles, a sophomore, admitted she isn’t a person who likes change, it didn’t take her long to decide to follow Terry to a new program, citing her trust in Terry and the rapport they built at Virginia Union.

“I came with Coach Terry to try and help my teammates out with stuff that I know that Coach Terry does. I let them know so that it would be easier for everybody and that transition is easier,” Charles said. “Just letting everybody know it’s all about discipline. Like, we run everywhere in practice. After we run sidelines, you got to run to the baseline. … We’re not just only playing for ourselves, but we’re also playing for our coach.”

Charles finished the regular season ranked eighth in the CIAA in scoring (13.1 points per game), fourth in rebounding (9.1 per game), second in field-goal percentage (48%) and fourth in total blocked shots (52). She also earned all-conference honors for the second time in her collegiate career.

Terry also added Temple University transfer Makayla Waleed, who as a fifth-year player provided the team with upperclassman leadership. Waleed is contributing 10.6 points per game and is tied for second in the conference in steals (75). Waleed also earned second-team all-conference honors this season.

Waleed said the transition wasn’t easy at first, but the team sat down together, established a shared vision and committed to holding each other accountable. Waleed believes the team’s turning point came against Lees-McRae College in December, when Winston-Salem State overcame a 16-point deficit for a 76-75 victory.

“Everybody bought in. Everybody truly believed we’re going to win. … I was like, ‘Oh yeah, we got something.’ We got something cooking here because not a lot of teams can do that,” Waleed said. “I just saw the progression, and I saw what we were working on so early, and I definitely believed we had something good.”

Throughout the season, the players kept their focus on one practice, one game, one improvement at a time. The players never even paused long enough to realize they had stacked 16 straight wins from mid-November to mid-January. The streak became a byproduct of daily discipline instilled by Terry and assistant coaches Jessica Freeman and Dylan Anderson.

While the run may have surprised outsiders, inside the locker room the success felt earned, not accidental. Terry, a behavioral psychology major at Winston-Salem State, leans heavily on what she learned in the classroom to guide her program on the sideline this season. She is intentional about managing both the physical demands of the season and the emotional temperament of her team.

“I’m tough, but I also want them to see how great you have been up to this point because you need to carry that confidence,” Terry said. “I always teach them to be confident, not cocky. Have humility still, but just carry all that confidence with you going forward into the tournament.”

Terry also has relied on guidance from University of Maryland Eastern Shore head men’s basketball coach Cleo Hill Jr., who was previously a CIAA title-winning head coach at Winston-Salem State. From Hill, she receives insight from someone who understands both the expectations and the blueprint for bringing a championship back to the university.

While the Winston-Salem State men’s basketball program has enjoyed storied success in the conference with 13 championships, the women’s team sees an opportunity to reward its loyal community with a championship of its own.

“[It] would mean everything to win. I think that would mean a lot,” Waleed said. “The Winston community [and] just everybody is so bought in already and have invested so much. I feel like that would just really be the big cherry on top of it.”

The Rams are ranked No. 15 in the Division II Women’s Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA) poll. Heading into the CIAA tournament, the team has won seven of its past eight games and lost only two conference games, one to reigning CIAA champion Fayetteville State University and another to Livingstone College.

Terry said the coaching staff is preparing the players for the tournament by cleaning up a few mistakes on offense and defense.

Despite entering the tournament as a No. 1 seed, Terry said she doesn’t feel additional pressure. During Winston-Salem State head football coach Tory Woodbury’s introductory press conference in December, he said, “Pressure is for the unprepared” — a mantra Terry has adopted.

“I just love that so much because I’m like, ‘You know what? You’re right.’ We put pressure on ourselves naturally because anytime you want to win, you’re going to put pressure on yourself,” Terry said. “I pressure myself more than other people ever could, probably. … If we go out there and perform how we know we can perform, you will see the result at the end.”

The post Winston-Salem State coach Tierra Terry made history. Now she wants a CIAA title. appeared first on Andscape.