Virginia Union Shows Toughness in 75-72 Win Over Bowie State's Bulldogs
BOWIE, Md. - The Virginia Union Panthers played tougher than host Bowie State on Wednesday night, edging the Bulldogs 75-72 in a key CIAA Northern Division clash. The loss snapped Bowie State’s six-game winning streak and sets the Bulldogs season mark at 11-9, 7-2 in league play and 1-1 in the North.
Junior Cameron Hayes paced the Bulldogs with 26 points (21 in the first half) and fellow junior Juwan Smith came off the bench to chip in 17. Junior Saiquan Jamison hauled down a team-high 13 rebounds while junior Yohance Fleming pulled down a half dozen rebounds.
“Union was just the tougher team tonight” said Bowie State Head Coach Darrell Brooks following the contest. “They beat us up on the glass, we didn’t do a good enough job defending (Terrell) Leach or (Will) Jenkins and that tells the story of the game.”
Leach and Jenkins torched the Bulldogs defense with 30 and 25 points respectively on a combined 21-of-42 shooting from the field. Jenkins led all rebounders with 15 and the Panthers outrebounded the Bulldogs 39-30.
Bowie State trailed early in the game but gained its first lead at the 16:39 mark after a triple by junior Rinardo Perry. With the scored tied at 12-all with 12 minutes left in the opening half, the Bulldogs used an 11-2 run, thanks to a pair of 3-pointers by Hayes and 3-pointer by Smith, giving the Bulldogs a 23-17 advantage.
The Bulldogs maintained the advantage until VUU’s Leached capped off a 23-16 run via a 3-pointer to regain the lead at 40-39. However, back-to-back 3-pointers by BSU sophomore Keith Duffin, Jr. and Hayes was enough to shift the lead back over to Bowie State at 45-42 going into halftime.
Virginia Union (10-8, 6-2, 1-1) trailed by a half dozen (50-44) early in the second half before answering with a 10-3 burst to what would eventually be the lead for good. Another Leach triple put the Panthers in front 54-53. The Panthers extended its lead to six (61-55) by the 9:54 mark of the second half.
Bowie State was able to close the gap to one twice over the next seven minutes with the last coming with 27 seconds to go and the Bulldogs trailing 73-70. Hayes was fouled on a 3-point attempt by Virginia Union’s Raemaad Wright, made the first two of three but missed the third that would have tied the game.
The Bulldogs knocked down 11-of-18 (61 percent) 3-point field goals on 22-of-48 overall shooting from the field and made 17-of-24 free throws (71 percent).
Bowie State will look to get back on the winning track on Saturday (January 26) when the Bulldogs travel to Murfreesboro, N.C. to tangle with the Chowan Hawks at 4 p.m.
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Bulldogs Suffer 52-51 Heartbreaking Loss to Nationally Ranked Virginia Union
BOWIE, Md. - The Bowie State University women’s basketball team suffered a heartbreaking 52-51 division loss to nationally ranked Virginia Union University in the A.C. Jordan Arena on Wednesday evening.
Junior forward Kyaja Williams had a double-double with 15 points and 10 rebounds but that wasn’t enough, setting the Bulldogs record at 15-3 overall, 7-2 in league and 0-2 within the division. Freshman guard Drew Calhoun added 11 points and junior Dynaisha Christian ripped down a game-high 12 rebounds.
Bowie State started the game on a 7-0 run before a Shareka McNeill jumper stopped the bleeding at 8:21 in the first period. The Bulldogs would go on another 7-0 run which was capped off by 3-pointer by sophomore Talanya Hutton, that led to a 14-11 home team after one quarter of play.
A pair of Williams’ free throws commenced Bowie State’s second period to extend the lead to 16-11. The third-year forward then converted a layup after a steal with 7:41 remaining in the second period.
The Panthers would later claw their way back after Nicole Floyd’s two jump shots cut the lead to 20-16. Bianca Lockamy’s corner three gave Virginia Union its first lead in the game at 21-20 with 4:09 left in the first half.
The lead would change hands twice before the Bulldogs were able to take a 25-24 lead into halftime.
The Bulldogs increased its lead to four mid-way through the third period before VUU’s Rejoice Spivey’s layup cut it back down 34-31 with 3:51 to go in the period. The Panthers hung around all game because of Bowie State’s inability to hit clutch free throws when it counted the most (15-of-22, 68.2 percent). Junior Amel Duggins’ 3-pointer gave the home team some breathing room at 36-33 before Spivey and McNeill answered with a layup and jumper to cut the lead Bowie State lead to 39-38 heading into the final period.
An Ifunanya Okoye jumper gave the Panthers the lead at 40-39 to begin the fourth period before Bowie State redshirt senior Pere Alexander’s layup gave the lead back to the Bulldogs. Virginia Union built its biggest lead in the game at 50-44 when Okoye converted on a layup at the 4:04 mark.
Bowie State’s Calhoun drilled a huge 3-pointer that tied the game at 50-all with 1:28 remaining. Bowie State had a shot to secure the win but Christian and junior Shawnkia McCallum missed crucial free throws down the stretch.
With Bowie State leading 51-50 with 20 seconds remaining, Virginia Union called timeout that led to Shareka McNeill’s game winning floater with 9 seconds to go in the contest.
Rejoice Spivey led all scorers with 16 points and grabbed six rebounds as Virginia Union improves to 16-1, 8-1 in the CIAA and 2-0 in the North. McNeill scored 11 points for the Lady Panthers and Floyd rounded out Virginia Union’s double figure scorers with 10.
The Bulldogs head south for its next contest, traveling to Murfreesboro, N.C. to take on the Chowan Hawks on Saturday (January 26) at 2 p.m. in CU’s Helms Center.
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