Box Score (LINCOLN UNIVERSITY, Pa.)  The Lincoln University men's basketball team rallied from a nine-point second-half deficit to force overtime, but the Lions couldn't pull off the upset as No. 19 Bowie State University survived with an 84-76 overtime victory in a CIAA Northern Division contest.

Bowie State (15-3, 7-2 CIAA, 3-0 North) raced out to a 20-16 advantage after a Travis Hyman dunk with 10:06 remaining, but Lincoln answered and took a 32-31 lead after a Teron Jones jumper with 47 seconds left in the first half. The Bulldogs got a pair of free throws by Jay Gavin with 31 seconds remaining as Bowie State took a slim, 33-32, lead into the break.

The Bulldogs shot 57 percent from the field (13-of-23) in the first period.  In comparison, the Lions made 13-of-29 first half field goals (45 percent) which included 6-of-9 (67 percent) behind the 3-point line.

Lincoln (Pa.) led only twice in the first period, holding a one point advantage (9-8 and 31-30) at the 14:17 and 1:22 marks respectively.  The Bulldogs led by seven (16-9) with 12:24 left in the first half, primarily on the hot long range shooting of junior Byron Westmorland. 

The Bulldogs followed the lead of the Lady Bulldogs to start the second half, going on a 7-0 run to begin the period.  LUPA's Derrick Washington stopped the run with a layup at the 17:34 mark.  However, Lincoln would not go away, trimming the deficit to 42-39 a little over a minute later.

Bowie State pushed the lead back to seven, but Lincoln's Jai Kellman drained back-to-back 3-pointers that cut the Bulldogs lead back down to four.  A tear drop in the paint by Richard Glover narrowed the gap to 51-49 with 11:22 remaining in the game.

A Denzel Mooney 3-pointer tied the game at 52 but he was assessed an unsporting technical foul for taunting.  Bowie State's Westmorland calmly converted the two technical free throws and followed that with a jumper, giving the Bulldogs a 56-52 advantage.

The Lions took their first lead (58-56) since the first half following a pair of free throws by Kenny Sharpe.  A free throw by senior Darren Clark followed by driving layup by fellow senior Jay Gavin shifted the advantage back to Bowie State at 59-58 with 5:43 left to play.

Lincoln (8-12, 3-6 CIAA, 1-2 North) had a few chances to win the game in regulation as Washington's 3-pointer bounced off the front iron with 36 seconds left and his jumper with four seconds remaining hit the back of the rim to end regulation tied at 70.

In overtime, Bowie State out-scored Lincoln 14-6 with Clark, a transfer from Lincoln, scoring eight points in the extra period.

Clark finished with 22 points on 6-of-12 shooting to lead the Bulldogs.  Westmorland had 20 points and Hyman chipped in with a double-double, 14 points and 16 rebounds. Gavin scored 11 points as Bowie State shot 53 percent (27-of-51) from the floor.

“At halftime I told Darren (Clark) he had only taken one shot and he wasn't being aggressive enough … We need him to run our team, but we also need him to score”, said Bulldogs head coach Darrell Brooks.

Mooney led the Lions with 25 points and tied for team-high rebound honors with eight.  Sharpe added 19 points and matched Mooney's rebounds with eight.

“I thought  the biggest difference tonight was us defending pretty well, holding them to 39 percent shooting overall and we outrebounded them by 10 (44-34), allowing us to shoot a bunch of free throws even though we didn't shoot them very well”, said Brooks.

Bowie State made 10 more free throws than Lincoln attempted, but made only 26-of-42 free throws (62 percent).  Lincoln converted 11-of-16 free throws (69 percent) with 10-of-11 coming in the second half.

Bowie State University travels south on Monday (January 30th) for a divisional matchup with the Trojans of Virginia State University.  Game time is 7:30 pm in VSU's Daniel Gymnasium.


Senior Darren Clark and junior Byron Westmorland combined for 42 points to lead 19th ranked Bowie State University to a thrilling 84-76 overtime victory over Lincoln University of Pennsylvania.

Complete story to come later