RICHMOND, Va. – In the first meeting of season, Virginia Union University topped Bowie State University men's basketball 75-67 on Wednesday night in Barco-Stevens Hall. With the loss, Bowie State falls to 11-8 overall, 4-4 in the CIAA and 0-2 in the Northern Division).
 
Junior Enuoma Ebinum (Greenbelt, Md.) recorded a season-best 15 points on 7-of-10 shooting from the field and tied for team-high rebound honors with six. Senior Miles Jackson (Silver Spring, Md.) tied Ebinum for team-high scoring honors with 15 points on 5-of-7 shooting from the field while sophomore Ahmaad Wilson (Baltimore, Md.) chipped in 14 points in the loss. Sophomore Omari George (Baltimore, Md.) made his first start of the season, scoring seven points to go along with six rebounds.
 
In spite of the loss, Bowie State head coach Darrell Brooks said, "We told our guys that we just have to stick together ... And I sure they will do just that."
 
The first half featured six lead changes and 0ne tie as Bowie State took a 38-35 advantage at intermission.
 
Both teams shot the ball well in the first half, with Virginia Union hitting at a 51.9 percent field goal clip (14-of-27) compared to 50 percent (14-of-28) for Bowie State.
 
The second half pretty much mirrored the first half with each team trading leads.  The Panthers took a 50-46 advantage into the first second half media timeout.
 
A Miles Jackson jumper followed by an Ebinum layup tied the score at 50-all with just under 13 minutes remaining in the second half.
 
The Panthers responded with an 8-0 run to take a 58-50 lead at the 10:45 mark before a Miles Jackson triple stopped the Virginia Union burst. However, Virginia Union would not allow Bowie State to get closer than five points, on six different occasions, for the rest of the night.
 
Virginia Union (10-9, 3-4 CIAA, 2-1 North) was led by Ray Anderson (Wilmington, Del.) with a game-high 26 points on 10-of-17 shooting from the field. Kory Cooley (Washington, D.C.) also scored in double figures, adding 21 points, which included 10-of-11 at the free throw line. Tavon Mealy (Richmond, Va.) pulled down a game-high seven rebounds and contributed eight points off the Panthers bench.
 
VUU closed out the game with a 50.9 percent field goal shooting percentage (27-of-53) and they knocked sown 19-of-23 free throws (82.6 percent).
 
Weather permitting, the Bulldogs will host the Chowan University Hawks on Saturday (1/23) afternoon at 4 p.m. in a big CIAA Northern Division contest in the A.C. Jordan Arena.