BOWIE, Md. - The Bulldogs used pressure defense, a Chowan miscue and free throws when it counted in Saturday's 68-66 home finale victory over the visiting Hawks. With the win, Bowie State's fourth in a row, the Bulldogs improve to 16-10 overall, 12-3 in league play and 6-2 in the division.   PHOTOS (Courtesy of John Betts)
 
"We're not playing pretty basketball right now but we're finding ways to win", said a very happy Bowie State Head Coach Darrell Brooks. "There are things we certainly have to work on … free throw shooting and taking care of the basketball. We wore them down with pressure in the second half and I thought our heart showed through, especially in the second half."
 
Junior Rinardo Perry paced the Bulldogs with a team-high 16 points and sophomore Keith Duffin, Jr. recorded 11 points. Junior Saiquan Jamison hauled down a game-high 13 rebounds to go along with eight points.
 
Bowie State trailed most of the first half but shot fairly well, hitting 46 percent of its shots (12-of-26). The Bulldogs did hold an 8-5 lead after a Duffin 3-point play at the 17:55 mark of the opening half before relinquishing that advantage to the Hawks after a pair of free throws by Chowan's Timothy Bing at the 13:07 mark.
 
Chowan (12-12, 5-10 CIAA, 2-6 North) pushed its lead to 29-19 with 6:26 left before halftime. Chowan was outscored 13-8 the remainder of the half and trailed the Hawks 37-32 at intermission.
 
The Bulldogs closed the gap to 41-40 five minutes into the second half and tied the game at 46-all following a layup by sophomore Justin Route at the 13-minute mark. Bowie State used a 10-1 run to extend its lead to 56-47 after a Perry layup with 9:10 to go in the contest.
 
With Bowie State leading 58-50 at the 7:08 mark, the Bulldogs offense went cold, and Chowan used an 11-0 run to regain the lead at 61-58 with 2:28 left on the clock.
 
Perry sank a pair of free throws to pull the Bulldogs within one only to have the Hawks push their lead to 64-60. Jamison made 1-of-2 free throws and junior Cameron Hayes drilled a 3-pointer with 1:02 remaining, tying the game at 64-all.
 
Chowan's Trejvon McFail gave the Hawks a two-point lead (66-64) with 29 seconds left after driving to the basket but Bowie State's Duffin evened the score at the free throw line with 15.9 seconds left in the hotly contested game.
 
On the ensuing in-bound, Chowan was facing a five second in-bounds call and called a timeout after using their final timeout on the previous possession.  Bowie State was awarded a technical free throw and took the lead 67-66.
 
Chowan had a chance on the final possession, but the attempt was blocked, and an offensive foul was called.
 
Perry went 1-2 from the stripe to seal the 68-66 win.
 
Chowan's Demetrius Sanders was the games' leading scorer with 18 points and Michael Kelly and Xavier Young tallied 14 and 11 points respectively for the Hawks.
 
Bowie State will hit the road for a rematch with division leading Virginia State next Wednesday (February 20). Game time is set for 7:30 p.m. and will be carried on ESPN3.