BOX SCORE

(RICHMOND, Va.)  The CIAA Eastern Division leading Panthers of Virginia Union dominated Bowie State from beginning to end, pounding the Bulldogs 71-53.  Sophomore Travis Hyman (Annapolis, MD, Old Mill, Prince George's C.C.) scored a team-high 14 points and added a game-high nine rebounds and five blocks to lead Bowie State.  

“They (Virginia Union) played very well and give Coach Coker and his team credit for capitalizing on our early turnovers,” said Bowie State head coach Darrell Brooks. “We only had 14 turnovers, but it seemed like every time we turned the ball over they scored.”

The game was pretty close the first 10 minutes with BSU's Bulldogs only trailing by four (18-14). However, Virginia Union closed out the first half outscoring Bowie State 19-6 to take a very comfortable 37-21 advantage into halftime.

Virginia Union shot 51 percent from the field in the first half (18-of-35) compared to 33 percent (9-of-27) for Bowie State.

Virginia Union's lead ballooned to a game-high 28 points (63-35) by the 8:35 mark of the second half and the Panthers simply cruised to the victory from there.

Bowie State's offense continued to struggle in the final period, making 9-of-28 from the field (32 percent), which included 2-of-10 behind the arc and 12-of-20 from the free throw line. The Bulldogs ended the night with an overall shooting percentage of 33 percent and 57 percent from the charity stripe.

Virginia Union's Wesley Simmons led all scorers with 16 points on 8-of-11 shooting and Braxton Byerson added a dozen points on 5-of-11 shooting from the field. Ryan King and Justin Ramsey also scored in double figures for the Panthers, tallying 11 and 10 points respectively.

Senior Armond Hill (Silver Spring, MD, Springbrook, Montgomery - Rockville C.C.) was the only other Bowie State player to reach double figures in scoring adding 10 points.

Bowie State will close out the regular season with five home games in six days, beginning on Monday (February 15), hosting Virginia State University at 7:30 p.m. Following that, BSU's Bulldogs will host Lincoln University of Pennsylvania (February 16) and Saint Paul's (February 17). Bowie State will play a non-conference game against Washington Adventist University (formerly Columbia Union College) on Thursday (February 18) and Virginia Union University (February 20).