Virginia State Women’s Basketball Defeats Bowie State 59-55

PETERSBURG, Va. – Virginia State University’s Trojans held off Bowie State on Wednesday evening in VSU’s Multi-Purpose Center, defeating the Bulldogs 59-55 and sweeps the season series.

Senior Denver Clyde (Glen Burnie, Md.) paced the Bowie State Bulldogs with a team-high 17 points while juniors Pere Alexander (Baltimore, Md.) and Kyah Proctor (Capitol Heights, Md.) with 11 points each. Freshman Kyaja Williams (Baltimore, Md.) hauled down a team-high 10 rebounds and added five points in the loss. Junior Kiara Colston (Burtonsville, Md.) rounded out Bowie State’s scorers with nine points.

Bowie State (18-7, 10-5 CIAA, 5-4 North) started extremely slow, falling behind Virginia State by a score of 11-3 at the 5:13 mark but trailed 13-9 after the first quarter. The Bulldogs made just three of 13 from the field (23.1 percent) in the first 10 minutes with two of those field goals being 3-pointers.

The Bulldogs improved their field goal shooting percentage in the second quarter to 46.7 percent (7-of-15) and trailed by just one (27-26) at halftime. Alexander and Clyde paced Bowie State in first half scoring with 10 points apiece.

Virginia State began the third quarter with an 8-2 run to push advantage to 35-28.  The three-ball played a major part in the Trojans early third quarter scoring, with 4-of 5 field goals being triples and carried a 49-42 lead into the fourth quarter.

Bowie State’s field goal shooting percentage continued to climb in the third quarter, hitting at a 54.5 percent clip (6-of-11) but so did Virginia State’s shooting percentage. The Trojans hit 8-of-15 field goals in the quarter (53.3 percent), which included 4-of-10 behind the arc.

Virginia State extended their lead to nine (56-47) with 5:09 remaining in the game but would score just one field goal the rest of the way. Fortunately, that was enough to hold off the visiting Bowie State.

Virginia State (18-7, 10-5 CIAA) was led by Nandi Taylor (Mt. Morris, Mich.) and Joy Hickman (Wilmington, Del.) with 17 points apiece. Endia McKinney (Norfolk, Va.) added 12 points and Taylor Daniels (Hampton, Va.) led all rebounders with a game-high 15 (14 defensively).

The Bulldogs will close out the regular season on the road at Elizabeth City State on Saturday (2/18) at 2 p.m. in the R.L. Vaughan Center.