WEST CHESTER, Pa. – In a game of two pretty evenly matched teams, West Chester University held off a fierce second half charge, defeating Bowie State University 94-92 on Saturday afternoon. The setback sets the Bowie State early season record at 2-3 while West Chester moves to 3-2 on the year.
 
Leading the way for Bowie State's Bulldogs on offense was junior Ahmaad Wilson (Baltimore, Md.) 20 points with redshirt freshman David Belle (Hyattsville, Md.) and junior Omari George (Baltimore, Md.) contributed 17 points each respectively. Senior Michael Briscoe (Waldorf, Md.) recorded a double-double of 10 points and a game-high 10 rebounds while senior Enuoma Ebinum (Greenbelt, Md.) accounted for 10 points, eight rebounds and two blocks. Junior Dayshawn Wells (Baltimore, Md.) handed out a team-high five assists to go along with nine points.
 
Zach Bare was West Chester's and the games leading scorer with 26 (15 in the second half) while Malik Jackson and Matt Penecale added 19 and 14 points respectively. Penecale dished out a game-high eight assists. Ryan Skovranko led the Golden Rams on the glass with nine to go along with eight points and two blocks and Tim Toro was responsible for nine points and seven rebounds.
 
The Bulldogs had a season-high 43 free throw attempts, making 30 (69.8 percent) and shot a season-high 51.9 percent from the field on 28-of-54 shooting. Bowie State turned the ball over a season-high 21 times which turned into 22 points for the Golden Rams.
 
Bowie State jumped out to a 19-9 first half advantage at the 12:17 mark but West Chester used an 11-5 run to trim the deficit to 24-20 a little over four minutes later. Bowie State answered with an 8-2 run to push the Bulldogs lead back to 10 (32-22) with 5:54 left in the first half.
 
The Golden Rams put together a 10-2 run capped off by a Jackson 3-pointer to tie the game at 34 and used that momentum to send West Chester into halftime with a 46-40 advantage.
 
Bowie State cut  West Chester's halftime lead to one (49-48) early in the second half but the Golden Rams went on a 10-0 run to open up a 59-48 lead at the 16:03 mark. A layup by Bowie State's Belle trimmed the West Chester lead to 69-63 and a pair of free throws by George closed to gap to 73-68 with 9:11 left in the game.
 
Bowie State battled back and tied the game at 80 on a Briscoe free throw with 6:01 remaining in the game. From there, the Bulldogs went on a 7-0 run to take an 87-80 lead  but went cold over the final 3:07, allowing West Chester to make one final run. The Golden Rams closed out the game with a 14-5 run to escape with the 94-92 victory.
 
The Bulldogs return home on Monday (11/28) night to host Cheyney University of Pennsylvania in a 7:30 p.m. non-conference contest in Bowie State's A.C. Jordan Arena.