by Bulldogs Sports Information Department
ELIZABETH CITY, N.C. – The Bowie State women’s basketball team made a strong finish in its regular season finale on Saturday afternoon, blasting Elizabeth City State by a score of 68-46. The win secures the Bulldogs as the #2 Seed in the North in next weeks’ conference.
Bowie State (22-4, 14-3 CIAA, 7-3 North) was led by Pere Alexander and Kyaja Williams with 16 and 15 points respectively. Williams pulled down a team-high eight rebounds and Alexander grabbed five off the glass. Amel Duggins chipped in eight points and Shawnkia McCallum contributed seven points off the bench.
As a team, the Bulldogs outrebounded the Lady Vikings 44-32 and held advantages in points in the paint (36-28), points off turnovers (28-14, second chance points (10-6), and bench points (33-8).
The Bulldogs trailed the Vikings 15-14 after one quarter of play, but Bowie State outscored Elizabeth City State 22-7 in the second quarter to take a 36-22 lead into halftime. The Bulldogs made 12-of-24 field goals over the first 20 minutes and converted 77 percent of its free throws, going 10-of-13 at the charity stripe.
Elizabeth City State (13-15, 5-12 CIAA, 2-8 North) shot a chilly 23 percent (3-of-13) from the field in the second quarter and 35 percent (10-of-29) from the field by halftime.
ECSU’s Lady Vikings opened the third quarter with back-to-back only to have BSU’s Bulldogs push lead to a dozen (42-30) by the 7:01 mark. Bowie State added five more points to the scoreboard to extend the Bulldogs lead to 47-30, forcing Elizabeth City State to burn its final team timeout of the game. Bowie State’s lead grew to 58-34 by the end of the third quarter.
The onslaught continued in the fourth quarter as the Bowie State lead ballooned to a game-high 24 points (58-34) by the 8:31 mark. The Bulldogs defense never allowed ECSU’s Vikings any closer than 18 points for the remainder of the contest and cruised to the victory.
Devona Stell and Jalyn Brown led Elizabeth City State in scoring with 11 points each while Naterria Luster and Asia Deal added eight and seven points respectively. As a team, the Lady Vikings finished the game shooting 31 percent from the field (18-of-58), which included 1-of-13 behind the 3-point line and Elizabeth City State shot well at the charity stripe, knocking down 9-of-11 (82 percent).
Bowie State’s women will now wait to see who will be its opponent in the quarterfinal round of the 2019 CIAA Tournament, beginning play on Thursday (February 28) at 3 p.m. in the Spectrum Center.
