BOWIE, Md. – Senior Kyah Proctor (Capital Heights, Md.) led three Bowie State players in double figures, scoring a game-high 23 points in a 68-56 Bulldogs victory on Wednesday evening. With the win, the Bulldogs are now 16-8 overall, 9-6 in CIAA play and 4-5 in the Northern Division.
 
In addition to Proctor, graduate student Sade Chatman (Minneapolis, Minn.) contributed 12 points and a team-high eight rebounds while sophomore Kyaja Williams (Baltimore, Md.) was responsible for 10 points and six rebounds off the Bowie State bench.
 
Bowie State started the contest with a 7-0 run within the first two minutes before Virginia State's Mia Fitts (Richmond, Va.) scored the opening basket for the Trojans at the 7:09 mark. VSU then added a basket at the 2:40 mark, giving the Bulldogs a one-point advantage (7-6). The Bulldogs Chatman answered with a jumper in the paint and VSU's Chrisanna Green (Jamestown, N.Y.) answered back with a layup to set the score at 9-8 with 1:54 left in the first quarter. The Bulldogs then pushed the lead to 13-10 only to have Virginia State's Endia McKinney (Norfolk, Va.) tied the game at 13-all via a deep 3-pointer to end the quarter.
 
Alexis Smith (Lusby, Md.) began the second quarter with a triple to give Virginia State its first lead at 16-13. Bowie State answered by adding a layup by senior Lisa Jing (Laurel, Md.) to cut VSU's lead 16-15.  Another McKinney 3-pointer helped the Trojans take a 20-15 advantage at the 6:04 mark if quarter two. The visiting Trojans held its largest lead at 25-17 at the 3:57 mark and carried a slim 29-28 lead into halftime.
 
The Trojans Green scored the opening bucket of the third quarter to give VSU a 31-28 lead. Fitts then added a three-pointer to extend Virginia State's lead to 34-28 at the 8:30 mark. Bowie State added baskets by Jing and sophomore Dynaisha Christian (Pocomoke, Md.), closing the deficit to 38-32 by the 6:12 mark of the third quarter. Fitts knocked down a pair of free throws to make the score 40-32, in favor of the Trojans.  With 45 seconds left to go in the third quarter, Green made one of two free throws which was enough to send Virginia State into the final quarter with a lead of 43-41.
 
Virginia State (21-4, 11-4 CIAA, 5-4 North) kept Bowie State at bay early in the third quarter, leading by eight twice before the Bulldogs went on a 7-0 run to close the gap to 40-39 following a Chatman layup at the 1:39 mark and trailed the Trojans 43-41 after three quarters of play.
 
A heavy dose of BSU's Proctor pulled the Bulldogs even at 45-all. Proctor drilled another 3-pointer on Bowie State's next possession which started a 12-1 run and a double-digit lead of 57-46 with 3:52 remaining in the contest and never looked back.
 
Green led Virginia State's Trojans with 18 points while Smith and Fitts rounded out the double figure scorers for the visitors with 13 and 11 points respectively. Green hauled down a game-high nine rebounds and Dionna Marcus (Fort Stewart, Ga.) grabbed eight rebounds in the loss.
 
Bulldogs' women's basketball closeout the regular season on Saturday (February 24th) hosting Elizabeth City State University at 2 p.m.