Bowie State Sweeps Season Series with 66-61 Road Win at Lincoln

LINCOLN UNIVERSITY, Pa. – The Bowie State Bulldogs held off a furious charge by the Lincoln University and earned a 66-61 CIAA division win against the Lions on Saturday afternoon in the Manuel Rivero Hall. With the win, the Bulldogs improve their season mark to 18-6 overall, 10-2 in conference play and 5-1 in the division.

Senior Cameron Knox (Baltimore, Md.) scored a game-high 17 points while junior Justin Beck (Ellicott City, Md.) and senior Zafir Williams (Baltimore, Md.) chipped in 15 and 11 points respectively for Bowie State’s Bulldogs. Beck was BSU’s top rebounder with nine.

“We played great defense, did a good job rebounding and made stops when we needed to,” said Bulldogs head coach Darrell Brooks. At the end of the first half and at the first eight minutes of the second half, I felt we played with a good pace … In spite of losing a (16 point) lead in the second half, it was a tough win and we’ll take it!”

After trailing by nine points in the first half, Bowie State senior Cameron Knox (Baltimore, Md.) stole the ball at mid-court and tied the game at 28-all at the 1:43 mark. Freshman Ahmaad Wilson (Baltimore, Md.) gave the Bulldogs their first lead of the game (30-28) following a pair of free throws with 51.3 seconds to go.

Knox drained a deep 3-pointer with 7.9 seconds left in the half to send Bowie State into halftime with a 33-29 advantage. Bowie State made 12-of-34 (35.3 percent) first half field goals and 6-of-9 free throws (66.7 percent).

Lincoln (13-9, 7-5 CIAA, 2-4 North) hit 9-of-30 first half field goals (30 percent), which included 5-of-15 beyond the arc and converted 6-of-10 at the charity stripe.

The Lions cut the Bulldogs lead down to eight (61-53) at the 5:50 mark of the second half, the closest Lincoln had been since 52-41 following a steal and dunk by Joshua Davis.

A Zafir Williams jumper pushed the Bowie State lead back to double-digits but a three-point play by Davis trimmed the Bulldogs lead to 63-56 with 4:27 remaining in the contest.

After the Lions forced the Bulldogs to take a bad shot with the shot clock running down, Davis’ dunk closed the gap to 63-58. Lincoln closed the game with a 12-5 run over the final 7:02.

Kyle Aiken (Randolph, N.J.) led the Lions with 14 points and Davis ended the game with 13 points (11 in the second half). Alonzo Murphy (Pittsburgh, Pa.) tallied nine points and Tony Efese (Spring Valley, N.Y.) chipped in eight points to go along with a game-high 10 rebounds.

Bowie State will return to the hardwood on Wednesday (February 11^th), making a trip south to take on the Panthers of Virginia Union University at 7:30 pm.