Lincoln (Pa.) Lions Earn 72-70 Rivalry Win Against Bowie State’s Bulldogs

LINCOLN UNIVERSITY, Pennsylvania --  The Bowie State University men's basketball had its two-game win streak snapped on Saturday afternoon as the Bulldogs dropped a huge 72-70 CIAA divisional decision to the Lions of Lincoln University of Pennsylvania.

The setback sets the Bulldogs record at 11-7 overall, 4-3 in the CIAA and 0-1 in the Northern Division. As for the Lions, they improve to 6-11 overall, 4-3 in the league and 1-0 in the division.

"Three words best describes today's game … They played tougher" said a very disappointed Bowie State head coach Darrell Brooks.

Senior Justin Beck (Ellicott City, Md.) led Bowie State's scorers with 16 points to go along with nine rebounds, four assists and blocked three shots. Senior Andre Jackson (Baltimore, Md.) and junior Enuoma Ebinum (Greenbelt, Md.) chipped in 15 and 10 points respectively for the Bulldogs.

The Bulldogs were outrebounded 51-44, outscored 18-16 in the paint, while the Lions bench outscored Bowie State 43-16.

Bowie State opened the game with 6-0 advantage before a Joshua Davis layup ended a Lincoln 0-11 drought over the five minutes. Bowie State led by seven twice in the first half before the Lions shot their way back to tie the game at 19-all at the 3:36 mark of the first half.

The Lions defense held Bowie State to just one field goal over the final five plus minutes of the opening half of play and took a 27-23 lead into halftime.

Field goal shooting was simply awful in the first 20 minutes for both teams. Lincoln (Pa.) made 9-of-37 from the field (24.3 percent) compared to 22.6 percent for Bowie State on 7-of-31 shooting from the field.

The Bulldogs erased their halftime deficit and a 3-pointer by junior Julian Livingston (Bowie, Md.) shifted the advantage over to Bowie State at 32-31 at the 16:52 mark of the second half.

The lead would change hands five more times before Lincoln's Sean James drilled a triple with 4:53 left in the game that gave the Lions a 58-56 lead they would not relinquish the rest of the afternoon. From there, Lincoln (Pa.) went on a 10-2 run to seal the win.

Lincoln's Davis recorded a double-double of 19 points and 19 rebounds while Quaman Burton and James scored 15 and 12 points respectively. Vernon Young just missed a double-double, hauling down a game-high 14 rebounds to go along with eight points.

The Bulldogs shot a season-low 31.3 percent from the field (21-of-67), which included 10-of-29 beyond the 3-point line (34.5 percent) and made only 18-of-28 (64.3 percent) at the charity stripe.

Bowie State will look to rebound on Wednesday (1/20) night with they travel to Richmond to face the Panthers of Virginia Union University at 7:30 p.m. in VUU's Barco-Stevens Hall.

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