BOWIE, Md. – Junior Saiquan Jamison tipped in the winning basket with 3.2 second left in double overtime, lifting Bowie State to a huge 88-87 victory over Elizabeth City State on Saturday (2/2) afternoon. The win sets the Bulldogs division record at 3-2, 9-3 in CIAA play and 13-10 overall and puts Bowie State back into second place in the North.
"We needed this win like we need air", said Bowie State Head Coach
Darrell Brooks. "I thought our guys were resilient, played together which was evident from the start and it's fitting the league's leading rebounder (Jamison) won the game for us."
Redshirt junior David Belle tied his career-high of 24 points on 8-of-11 shooting from the floor to lead Bowie State in the win. Junior Cameron Hayes came off the Bulldogs bench to contribute 16 points to go along with a pair of assists, a pair of steals and one block. Junior Juwan Smith also provided a spark off the Bowie State bench to score 15 points on 6-of-9 shooting from the field, tied his career-high in assists with five and tacked on two steals. Jamison was the games leading rebounder with 11 to go along with eight points and two blocked shots.
Junior Rinardo Perry along with sophomore Keith Duffin, Jr. were responsible for nine points each while sophomore Justin Route rounded out Bowie State's scorers with seven points.
Elizabeth City State (11-12, 7-5 CIAA, 1-4 North) jumped out to an early 4-0 first half lead before a Belle layup at the 16:45 mark stopped the Vikings opening game run. The Vikings slowly inched away and pushed its lead to 17-7 with 11:58 to go in the first half.
Bowie State answered with an 8-2 run to trim the Elizabeth City State lead down to four (19-15) by the 9:39 mark and a Hayes 3-pointer with two seconds left in the first half sent the teams into halftime tied at 34-all. The Bulldogs knocked down 53 percent of its shots in the first half (10-of-19) and 92 percent of their free throws (11-of-12).
The Bulldogs gained its first lead (42-41) after a Route tip-in at the 10:56 mark of the second half and extended its lead to seven (49-42) by the midway point of the second 20 minutes of action.
The Vikings of Elizabeth City State fought back to retake the lead at 52-51 following a 3-pointer by Justin Faison at the 6:55 mark. The lead would change hands five times until a pair of free throws by Omar Roberts sent the highly contested contest into the first overtime tied at 66-all.
One extra period was not enough as the Bulldogs and Vikings remained tied at 78-all thanks to a floating jumper by ECSU's Faison as time expired, creating a second overtime.
Elizabeth City State seemed set on stealing a win as the Vikings held a six-point advantage (87-81) but the Bowie State's Bulldogs were determined not lose, closing the second extra period with a 7-0 run to claim the 88-87 victory.
Roberts led five Elizabeth City players in double figure scoring with 18 points followed by Faison with 15 and Tyjhai Byers added 14 points. Aujameq Daniels tallied 12 points in the loss and Shyheid Pettaway contributed 11 points.
The Bulldogs will have a little break before returning to the hardwood on Saturday (February 9) as Bowie State travels to Lincoln University of Pennsylvania for a 4 p.m. divisional matchup against the Lions.