Jan. 6, 2011

Final Stats

FAYETTEVILLE, NC -- Bowie State got off to a fast start.

And it was just enough to hold off the Fayetteville State Broncos.

Behind the hot shooting of Eric Vann and Bryan Westmorland, the Bulldogs shot 60 percent from the field in the game's first 10 minutes to take a double-digit lead it held onto for most of the rest of the game to knock off the Broncos 78-66 at Felton J. Capel Arena on Friday night.

Westmoreland scored 15 of his 19 points in the first half, and he and a hot-shooting Eric Vann, who finished with a game-high 24 points after starting the game hitting his first five shots, helped 20th-ranked Bowie State (6-2, 1-0) race out to a 24-9 lead less than 9 minutes into the game.

The Broncos (4-5, 0-1), who came into the game as the highest scoring team in the CIAA at more than 86 points per game, struggled to find their shot throughout, shooting just 10-of-41 (24.4 percent) from the field in the first half to fall behind 40-27 at the break.

Fayetteville State amped up its defense for the duration of the game, and Bowie State rapidly cooled off, but the Broncos could never trim the deficit to less than eight points. The Bulldogs shot just 36 percent from the floor in the second half, but the Broncos weren't much better, making only 31 percent of their second-half attempts. FSU shot a season-low 27.2 percent from the floor for the game.

Still, Fayetteville State got itself back into the game,, rallying from a 21-point second half deficit with a 22-13 advantage over an 8-minute stretch to creep within eight, 62-54, with 6:36 to go.

"It was one of those nights where we just didn't shoot well, but I can't say enough about our effort," said Fayetteville State coach Alphonza Kee. "We held a huge rebounding advantage, and even though our shots weren't falling, we kept after it and continued to bring tremendous effort."

But the Bulldogs answered each time the Broncos got close, and used a late run to stretch the lead back to 15 with about a minute to go.

John Herrington (Jr., Jacksonville, NC) led the Broncos with 13 points and 13 rebounds while Sidney Evans (Jr., Durham, NC) added 12 points and nine boards . Tim Plummer (Jr., Apex, NC) had 12 points and seven rebounds while Ariel Robinson (Jr., Coral Springs, FL) chipped in 10 points to go with nine rebounds. The Broncos held a significant 63-41 advantage on the glass - with a staggering 32 offensive rebounds.

Jay Gavin added 14 points while Darren Clark chipped in 12 for the Bulldogs.

The game was the first at home for the Broncos in six weeks. FSU was back home for the first time since an 83-73 victory over St. Andrews on Nov. 15. In that time, Fayetteville State already won more games on the road than in all of last season (with two), and scored the third-most points in a single game in the program's history when it romped for 126 points in a 64-point victory over Johnson & Wales.