BOWIE, Md. – Bowie State men's basketball picked up a non-conference home win on Saturday afternoon, knocking off Claflin by a final score of 67-53. With the win, the Bulldogs even its record at 6-6 overall.
PHOTOS (Courtesy of Lawrence Johnson) PHOTOS (Courtesy of Carroll Smith)
"We were ready for this game tonight and our guys really stayed connected defensively, we communicated well and I thought our zone really kept them off balance", said Bowie State Head Coach
Darrell Brooks.
Senior
Cameron Hayes (Upper Marlboro, Md.) led four Bulldogs in double figure scoring with 13 while seniors
David Belle (Hyattsville, Md.) and
Saiquan Jamison (Upper Marlboro, Md.) along with junior
Justin Route (Washington, D.C.) were responsible for 11 points apiece in the win. Route's 11 points tied his career-high.
The Bulldogs led the entire first half and carried a 33-22 advantage into intermission. Bowie State dominated in the paint over the first 20 minutes, outscoring Claflin 20 to 4 and held 22-15 rebound advantage.
Bowie State' lead grew to a game-high 20 points (46-26) at the 15:59 mark of the second half but Claflin used a 9-0 run to close the Panthers deficit to 46-35 with 12:37 to go. However, Bowie State 13-5 run that gave the Bulldogs a comfortable 59-40 lead by the 6:36 mark of the second half closing the door in any thoughts of a comeback by Claflin.
"Our focus today was to play hard, compete, finish the game and not turn the ball over as much as we did in our previous game", said Brooks.
As a team, Bowie State finished the contest shooting 45.8 percent from the floor (22-of-48), which included 7-of-19 beyond the arc and the Bulldogs made 16-of-22 (72.7 percent) at the charity stripe. The Bulldogs dominated on the glass, outrebounding the Panthers 40-25.
As for Claflin as a team, the Panthers finished with a field goal shooting percentage of 35.3 percent (18-of-51) and 62.5 percent at the free throw line, making 10-of-16.
Latrell West (New Brunswick, N.J.) paced (Claflin (4-7) with a game-high 16 points. Romero Hill (Memphis, Tenn.) chipped in seven points and the Panthers trio of Ojeh Nkem (Atlanta, Ga.), Jailen Williams (Salisbury, N.C.) and Mykal Johnson (Capital Heights, Md.) added six points each.
The Bulldogs return to action on Monday (December 16) hosting Livingstone College at 7:30 p.m. in the A.C. Jordan Arena.
