Box Score BOWIE, Md. – The Lady Bulldogs missed a huge opportunity to knock off #13 Virginia State and lost a heartbreaker in overtime by a score of 70-58 on Wednesday night. With the loss, the Bowie State overall record falls to 10-13 while the Lady Trojans improve to 23-1.
 
Junior Donia Naylor (Washington, D.C.) notched her fifth double-double of the season, recording 13 points and 11 rebounds and was the only Bowie State player to tally double figures. Senior Alessandra Flores Conway (Hagerstown, Md.) and junior Ashley Castle added eight and seven points respectively.
 
Virginia State (14-1 CIAA, 9-0 North) was led by Lamesha Deal (Norfolk, Va.) with a game-high 23 points and a team-high eight rebounds while Jessica Lyons (Upper Marlboro, Md.) added 16 points and seven rebounds for the Lady Trojans.
 
The game got off to a very slow with Bowie State going 1-of-13 from the field over the first five minutes with Naylor providing that bucket at the first media timeout and Virginia State leading 6-2.
 
The Lady Trojans and Lady Bulldogs shot a combined 5-of-32 from the field by the 9:46 media timeout and holding a 10-7 lead. Virginia State took their largest lead of the first half at 14-7 only to see Bowie State go on a 7-0 to tie the game at 14-all with 5:25 left in the first half following a jumper by junior Jasmine McIntosh (Bowie, Md.).
 
Bowie State junior Ashley Castle (Brooklyn, N.Y.) hit a jumper at the 1:42 mark of the opening half to create the games' fourth tie, this time at 20. Unfortunately, the Lady Bulldogs would score no more and trailed 25-20 at the half.
 
Field goal shooting was actually pretty bad over the first 20 minutes with Virginia State making 4-of-23 (17.4 percent) compared to 6-of-30 (20 percent) for Bowie State. Free throws made the difference in the first half for the visitors from Ettrick (Va.) as the Lady Trojans converted 15-of-16 (93.8 percent) from the charity stripe.
 
The Lady Bulldogs took their first lead of the evening at the 15:35 mark of the second half after a pair of free throws by graduate student Uchechi Ahaiwe (Riverdale, Md.), giving Bowie State a 29-27 advantage.
 
Ahaiwe scored again on BSU's next possession and senior Moriah Goodman (Baltimore, Md.) along with Naylor added field goals to give the Lady Bulldogs its largest lead of the game at eight (35-27).
 
However, a Deal jumper capped off a 7-0 run Virginia State run to pull the nationally ranked Lady Trojans within one at 35-34 with just over 10 minutes remaining in regulation.
 
Bowie State (5-10 CIAA, 4-5 North) maintained their lead until a pair of free throws by VSU's Lyons knotted the game at 51-all with 1:53 on the A.C. Jordan Arena scoreboard. Deal followed with a tough jumper in the paint to give Virginia State its first lead since the 18:27 mark of the second half.
 
BSU's McIntosh battled in the paint for a loose ball and came out of the fray with a layup to tie the game at 53 with 36 seconds left in regulation. The Lady Bulldogs defense forced back-to-back Virginia State turnovers and had the perfect opportunity to win the game in regulation.
 
Virginia State led the entire overtime period except for one brief tie at 55 at the 3:13 mark. The Lady Trojans defense held the Lady Bulldogs to just one field goal (out of seven) in the extra frame while going a perfect 4-of-4 on their end of the floor. Free throws made the difference as Virginia State made 9-of-10 to seal the win.
 
The Lady Bulldogs close out the regular season on Saturday (2/22) hosting the Lady Vikings of Elizabeth City State on Senior Day at 1 pm.