Bowie State eliminates WSSU, 71-67

Bowie State eliminates WSSU, 71-67

March 2, 2006

The Bulldogs of Bowie State handed Winston-Salem State a 71-67 loss as the Rams closed out 61 years of CIAA Tournament history.

The Rams, who will leave the CIAA and the NCAA Division II ranks following the 2005-06 academic year, as they transition to NCAA Division I status and the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference, came up just short versus the Bulldogs in a bid to close out their historic CIAA membership with a conference championship. 

Neither team shot well during the game’s first 20 minutes of play as the two CIAA powers combined to miss 34 field goals during the first half of basketball.

However, it was the Bulldogs who would outperform the Rams in the first half as they forced WSSU into double-digit (10) turnovers and recorded five more field goals en route to an eight point lead at the halftime intermission.

The second half saw the Rams get as close as two points as a 5-0 run trimmed the Bowie State lead to 42-40 with 13:21 to play in the contest.

The Bulldogs would immediately mount a run of their own as they pushed the lead back to nine points only three minutes later, and WSSU would get no closer for the remainder of the contest.

Leading the way for BSU was Kevin Bell who led four Bulldog scorers in double-figures with 18 points.  He was joined by Ray Akinola (16), Thomas Hawkins (14) and Magnus St. Ange (14) who all scored at least ten points in the win.

The Rams were led in scoring by a pair of 1,000-point career scorers.  Junior forward Audly Wehner scored his 1,000^th career point at WSSU on the ninth point of his 23 point performance.  The 23 points now give him 1,014 points at WSSU.  He was joined by fellow 1,000-point scorer Alleggrie Guinn who closes out his CIAA career with a 27 point performance that gives him 1,535 points for his WSSU career, ranking him seventh on the Rams’ all-time scoring list. 

The win earns Bowie State a date in the CIAA Tournament semifinals on Friday evening at 9:00 pm.  The Bulldogs will face the winner of the Johnson C. Smith University/Virginia State University contest that will be played on Thursday evening at 9:00 pm.