RALEIGH, N.C. – The Bowie State Bulldogs started slow against Saint Augustine's on Thursday evening but showed its might in the second half and rallied to defeat the Lady Falcons 60-52 in Emery Gymnasium.
Leading Bowie State's offense was junior
Kyaja Williams with 16 points which include a perfect 10-of-10 at the free throw line. Redshirt senior
Pere Alexander and freshman
Chyna Butler contributed 11 and 10 points respectively. Butler's 10 points tied her career-high. Alexander led the Bulldogs on the glass with seven rebounds.
The Bulldogs defense forced the Lady Falcons into 25 turnovers that resulted into 19 points. However, Bowie State was not immune from the turnover bug either, committing 19.
Shankia Clark paced the Saint Augustine's Lady Falcons with 13 points on 5-of-8 shooting from the field and Kamya Renwicks tallied 12 points to go along with five rebounds and three assists in the loss.
Saint Augustine's (2-11, 1-5 CIAA) jumped out to an early 7-3 lead to start the game and held a 13-7 lead after the first quarter.
The Bulldogs battled back, closing the deficit to 23-20 by halftime.
Bowie State (13-1, 5-0 CIAA) came out of intermission with a burst, taking its first lead at the 9:02 mark and held a 24-23 advantage courtesy of an Alexander layup and led 33-27 by the under-five media timeout (4:45). The Bulldogs pushed its lead to 40-31 with just over a minute left in the third quarter and led the Lady Falcons 44-33 heading into the final quarter of action.
The Bulldogs were never really threatened in the fourth quarter even though the Lady Falcons closed the gap to five at 55-50 with two minutes remaining in the contest.
Bowie ended the game shooting 46 percent from the field (20-of-44) and 76 percent at the free throw line (19-of-25).
The Saint Augustine's Lady Falcons finished with a field goal shooting percentage of 38 percent (18-of-47) and knocked down 12-of-18 free throws (67 percent). Saint Augustine's was able to out-rebounded Bowie State 31-29 with Clark leading all rebounders with 11.
Bowie State University women's basketball will take its 12-game winning streak into Saturday's (1/12) road contest at Shaw University. Game time between the Bulldogs and Lady Bears is 2 p.m. in the C.C. Spaulding Gymnasium.
