Senior Brian Kelley Nets Career-High in Bowie State's 74-63 Home Finale Win Against Chowan

By Gregory Goings

BSU Sports Information Officer

BOWIE, Md. – Bowie State Bulldogs men’s basketball played their final regular season home game of the season and defeated the Chowan Hawks 74-63 in the A.C. Jordan Arena on Saturday afternoon. The win improves Bowie State to 10-14 overall, 7-7 in league play and 3-5 in the CIAA North.

Senior Brian Kelley (Lanham, Md.) pumped in career-high 17 points on a perfect 7-of-7 shooting from the field, added four rebounds and a pair of assists to lead four Bulldogs in double figures. Other Bowie State double figure scorers include junior Omari George (Baltimore, Md.) with 15 points on 7-of-9 shooting from the field, senior Ahmaad Wilson (Baltimore, Md.) with 15 points and redshirt freshman David Belle (Hyattsville, Md.) tallied 11 points on 5-of-6 shooting from the field.

George tied for team/game-high rebound honors with Bulldog junior Dayshawn Wells (Baltimore, Md.), pulling down seven apiece. The seven rebounds by Wells was a career-high.

As a team, Bowie State shot 50 percent from the field overall (29-of-58), which included 40 percent (6-of-15) behind the 3-point line. The Bulldogs out-rebounded the Hawks 43-26 and outscored their opponent 32-16 in the paint.

Chowan (15-8, 8-6 CIAA, 4-4 North) held an early 7-3 lead to start the game but Bowie State went on a 9-3 run to take the lead (for good) at 12-10 by the 14:27 mark of the first half.

A pair of Jeremy Smith (Kenansville, N.C.) free throws created the games third and final tie at 12-all, but Bowie State put together a 9-2 run to give the Bulldogs a 21-14 lead with 9:34 remaining in the first half.

The Bulldogs lead grew to ten (30-20) by the 2:39 mark and Bowie State led by a dozen points (36-24) at the half.

Bowie State’s defense held Chowan to 28.6 percent shooting from the field (8-of-28) in the first 20 minutes compared to 46.7 percent (14-of-30) for the Bulldogs.

The Bulldogs maintained a double-digit lead in the second half and grew to a game-high 18 points (53-35) by the nine minute mark, but allowed the Hawks to narrow the gap to eight twice.

The Hawks were led by Smith with a game-high 18 points with 10-of-11 coming at the free throw line and pulled down seven rebounds. Joe Goodwin (Little rock, Ark.) and Kevin Kuteyi (Lanham, Md.) rounded out Chowan’s double figure scorers with 12 and 11 points respectively.

The Bulldogs travel to Virginia State on Wednesday (2/15) night for a huge Northern Division clash set for 7:30 p.m. in VSU’s Multipurpose Center.