Friday, January 10, 2014

Saint Augustine?s Falcons Spoil Conference Home Opener to Top Bowie State 79-69

Saint Augustine’s Falcons Spoil Conference Home Opener to Top Bowie State 79-69


BOWIE, Md. –Amere May (South Haven, Mich.) scored 23 points including a huge three-pointer late, as Saint Augustine’s University rallied from 12 points down in the second half to top Bowie State 79-69 on Thursday night. The loss was the fifth straight for Bowie State and drops the defending CIAA Champions record to 6-9 overall and 0-4 in CIAA play.

“We just didn’t finish it out as we’ve done over the past five games”, said Bulldogs fifth-year head coach Darrell Brooks. “Our guys want to win, they’re working hard and they care, but we just have to manage our lead when we get it in the second half!”

The Bulldogs struggled from the charity stripe, making 16-of-25 but turned the ball over 11 times, tying their season-low. “We shoot free throws ad nauseam every day in practice … It’s all mental”, said Brooks.

Senior David Golladay (Upper Marlboro, Md.) scored a career-high 21 points on 7-of-11 shooting to go along with seven rebounds, two assists and two steals to pace Bowie State. Senior Carlos Smith (Baltimore, Md.) notched a double-double of 15 points and 13 rebounds and added a pair of blocks and steals, while fellow senior Ray Gatling (Oxon Hill, Md.) contributed 19 points and two assists in the loss.

May drained a trey with 1:11 left to break a tie game and put the Falcons up 69-66. It was the Falcons’ first lead since early in the first half.

Bulldogs junior Zafir Williams (Philadelphia, Pa.) connected on a free throw to slice the Falcons’ lead to two points, but Saint Augustine’s Tashaun Stockdale (Poplar, S.C.) converted a key three-point play for a 72-67 Falcons lead with 35 seconds left.  Stockdale added a free throw and Joel Kindred (Raleigh, N.C.) threw down a dunk to increase the lead to 75-67 with 13 seconds left.

After Golladay dunked to pull the Bulldogs within 75-69, May hit 4-of-4 free throws for the final margin after he was fouled and after a technical foul was assessed to Coach Brooks with 3.4 seconds remaining in the contest.

After trailing by five at halftime (39-35), Saint Augustine’s (10-3 / 3-0 CIAA) outscored the Bulldogs 45-30 in the second half including 13-3 in the last two minutes of the game after falling behind 48-36 early in the second half.

In addition to May’s production, Kindred added 13 points and Stockdale tallied 10 points for the Falcons, who outscored the Bulldogs 29-6 in bench points and 17-9 in second-chance points. Jon Crawley (Richmond, Va.) added nine points Raheem Jolliffe (Fayetteville, N.C.) had eight points and six rebounds.

The Bulldogs will have little time to regroup as Bowie State will host the Shaw University Bears on Saturday (1/11) afternoon in the A.C. Jordan Arena. Tip-time is set for 4 pm.

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