BOX SCORE
PHOTO GALLERY (Courtesy of Carroll Smith)
(CHARLOTTE, N.C.) Back and forth they went, the conference's best team in the regular season, against the No. 1 seed from the opposing division to earn a trip to the tournament finals.
Johnson C. Smith (24-3), the champion the South and a favorite to win the Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association (CIAA) Women's Basketball Tournament, overcame a four-point deficit in the final 54 seconds for a 69-64 win at Time-Warner Arena.
Bowie State, the number two seed in the North, led much of the night going up as much as 11 at 38-27 after its opening bucket in the second half. BSU's Lady Bulldogs appeared to have a comfortable 64-60 edge with 54 seconds left before two turnovers resulted in the Lady Bulldogs' demise.
With 54 seconds left, BSU senior
Brittney Jackson (Laurel, MD, Laurel) made one of two, and on the miss, the Lady Golden Bulls raced down the court, and Terrica Jones hit a trey from the left corner to get JCSU within a possession of the lead with 49 seconds to go.
Bowie State junior
Chanita Jordan (Philadelphia, PA, University City, North Carolina State) tried to break the press with a pass at midcourt; it was tipped to the Lady Golden Bulls' Terran Quattlebaum capitalized with a lay-in with 33.6 seconds left for a 65-64 lead.
Coming out of a timeout, Shontanette Shaw came up with a steal, and Quattlebaum made two free throws to steal the game.
In the post game press conference, Bowie State third year coach
Donna Polk said, “This was a disappointing loss. Looking at the statistics, the second half didn't do us well. We had 18 turnovers. For the final game, we shot 22-for-36 on free throws. That's your ballgame right there. Missed free throws and we didn't take care of the ball very well.”
Quattlebaum and LaQwesha Gamble each finished with 17 points while Gamble also had a team-high seven rebounds. Junior
Juliette Turner (Atlanta, GA, John F. Kennedy) led Bowie State with 16 points and five rebounds and Jordan added 13 points and seven rebounds in the loss.
The game began with the Lady Bulldogs assuming control, assembling a nine-point on three occasions in the first half. After trailing, 27-18 with more than seven minutes left in the period, the Golden Bulls closed within 27-24, but JCSU struggled mightily from the field after shooting just 25 percent in the opening stanza.
Bowie State's Jordan had a lot to do with that. Although she had just one block in the first half and two for the game, she consistently altered shots and got into the psyche of the conference's best team in the regular season.
But the JCSU Lady Golden Bulls' confidence began brewing. Johnson C. Smith rattled off an 11-1 run to take the lead. Shavonda Price drew JCSU within on a jumper from the free-throw line six minutes into the second half, and two Gamble free throws gave the Lady Golden Bulls its first lead since 7-5 at the 2:32 mark of the opening period.
Bowie State would not surrender control quietly. Jordan came through in the post with a spin move that put the Lady Bulldogs back up, 42-40. JCSU turned the ball over on its next possession, and Jackson converted to reassert control for the Lady Bulldogs, who ultimately went up six points with 11:54 remaining.
The Lady Golden Bulls held strong and received a lift when Jordan picked up her fourth foul with 5:39 to go. Brittane Neely missed both attempts at the line but Shontanette Shaw took a feed from Price who corralled the offensive board to give JCSU the lead again at 57-56, with 5:39 to go. The teams changed leads four more times after that including the final time on the Quattlebaum steal and lay-in.
Bowie State turned the ball over 28 times for the game with 18 in the second half. JCSU meanwhile, committed just 16 and had 22 offensive rebounds.
Polk concluded her post game press conference comments by saying, “They got some easy buckets ... We had some missed defensive assignments and they had some big second-chance points and some hustle points.”
Bowie State closes out the season with a record of 18-10.
