Box Score (BOWIE, Md.)  A win is a win and that's just what nationally ranked Bowie State got after beating Livingstone College 69-64 in first home game in 11 days.  Junior Byron Westmorland led the 12th ranked Bulldogs with 19 points.

“I'm always happy when we win a game and we're not going to make excuses, but I thought we looked tired as a team,” said third-year Bowie State head coach Darrell Brooks.  “Livingstone did a great job scrapping a playing hard.”

Livingstone (3-8 / 0-5 CIAA) had a slow start and the Bulldogs pulled out to an 11-2 lead in the first 4:11 of the contest with the only Blue Bear bucket coming from Greg Henry.  Livingstone did recover with an 11-2 run of its own to tie the game at 13-13 with 8:26 remaining.

Bowie State (11-3 / 3-2 CIAA) went back up by five at 18-13, but a quick 9-2 run by Livingstone gave the Blue Bears a 22-20 lead with 3:43 remaining.  The Bulldogs finished the half on an 8-4 run and took a 28-26 lead into the break.

The Blue Bears came out very strong to start the second half, getting six of the first nine points and had a 32-31 lead with 18:41 on the clock.  Over the next eight minutes the two teams traded buckets on both ends of the court and with 10:10 to play in the contest, the Blue Bears held a 45-44 edge.  Bowie State then went on a 9-0 run courtesy of back-to-back Westmorland 3-pointers and a layup by senior Ali Djim, grabbing a 53-45 lead with 8:54 to play.

Livingstone worked very hard over the last eight minutes of the game to continually stay within striking distance of the Bulldogs.  With just over a minute remaining, the Blue Bears trailed by eight.  Quintin Redfern converted an old-fashioned three-point play to bring Livingstone within 63-58.
 
In the final minute, the Bulldogs were pressured to convert their free-throw attempts and hit just enough to hold off the Blue Bears.  Bowie State had to fight past three-pointers from Omar Ford-Bey and Mark Thomas to hold on for the 69-64 victory.

Mark Thomas led the Blue Bears with 13 points while Ethan Anderson was the only other Blue Bear in double figures with 10 points.  Anderson grabbed six rebounds to lead Livingstone and was matched by Omar Ford-Bey.

Livingstone finished the game shooting 35.3 percent from the floor including 36.8 percent from three-point range.  The Blue Bears struggled at the charity stripe, converting only 9-of-18 attempts.

Bowie State did not do much better in terms of field goal shooting, making a season-low 35.5 percent of its shots (22-of-62) which included just 8-of-26 beyond the arc.  Free throws and turnovers were a sore spots for the Bulldogs as well. Bowie State finished the night 17-of-29 (58.6 percent) from the charity stripe and committed 20 turnovers.

Besides Westmorland's scoring, senior Jay Gavin recorded 15 points and seniors Travis Hyman and Darren Clark added 10 points apiece for the Bulldogs.  Hyman hauled down a game-high 15 rebounds and blocked two shots.

The Bulldogs will play a critical home conference game Thursday (January 19th), hosting the Golden Bulls of Johnson C. Smith University at 7:30 pm in the A.C. Jordan Arena.