WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. - Bowie State University women's basketball made it two wins a row after taking down Winston-Salem State 57-53 on the road on Saturday afternoon in WSSU's C.E. Gaines Center.
 
Junior Talanya Hutton (Seat Pleasant, Md.) led the Bulldogs for the second straight game, scoring a game-high 18 points, tying her career-high to go along with eight rebounds, also tying her career-high. Senior Dynaisha Christian (Pocomoke, Md.) fell just short of a double-double, pulling down a game-high 12 rebounds and added eight points.
 
Last year's team leading scorer senior Kyaja Williams (Baltimore, Md.) came off the bench and played a pivotal role scoring 10 points and grabbed seven rebounds. The Bulldogs improve to 2-0 overall and 1-0 CIAA play.
 
Melody Pritchard led the Rams in scoring with 17 points and added four rebounds, while Brandi Segars pitched in 15 points and tallied eight rebounds. The Winston-Salem State loss pulls the Rams season record even at 3-3 and 0-1 in the conference.
 
The Rams controlled the game from the very beginning, scoring the first basket. Both teams had to battle through a tough first quarter to establish control. BSU would later go on a 6-0 run orchestrated by senior Shawnkia McCallum (Baltimore, Md.) and Hutton layups to force the Rams to call an early timeout. Pritchard's 3-pointer cut the deficit to 6-5 with 6:39 remaining in the first quarter. The back and forth continued throughout the quarter with Bowie State jumping to 14-10 lead after Hutton's layup at 3:17. Winston-Salem would later regain momentum with Pritchard hitting another three at 2:23 to end the quarter 21-16 Rams.
 
Both team's struggled to buy a basket in the second quarter until Kyree Hall's 3-pointer extended the Salem's lead to 24-20 at the 5:17 mark. The Bulldogs were held to only eight points in the quarter, turned the ball over five times and trailed 30-24 at halftime.
 
Hutton opened the scoring in the third period to cut the Rams lead to 30-26 before WSSU's Jahlia Williams' triple gave the Rams its biggest lead of the night at 33-26. BSU clawed its way back with Williams and Hutton layups to slice the lead to 37-36 to end the quarter. Bowie State forced five turnovers and only gave up seven points in the period.
 
Freshman Seanice Lyons' (Upper Marlboro, Md.) layup gave Bowie State their first lead since 38-37 in the first half to begin the fourth period. Pritchard would erase that with another 3-pointer of her own to take the lead at 40-38. After trading baskets for a large portion of the quarter, the Rams took a 53-48 lead after Williams' free throws and Pritchard's layup with 2:23 remaining in the game. Just when it seemed like the Bulldogs were out of gas, Williams' and one play plus a fast break layup after WSSU missed jumper tied the game at 53-53 with just 1:02 remaining in the game.
 
Bowie State put the game away on layups by Christian and senior Amel Duggins (Largo, Md.) to seal the victory at 57-53 victory for the Bulldogs.
 
As a team, Bowie State shot 41.7 percent (25-of-60) from the floor and 50 percent (6-of-12) from behind the arc, while the Rams went 37.3 percent (19-of-51) from the floor, which included 47.1 percent (8-of-17) from long range.
 
The Bulldogs will return to action when they travel to Livingstone College on Monday (November 25) for a 5:30 tipoff against the Lady Blue Bears.