JCSU Men's Basketball Downs Bowie State, 82-65

Charlotte, N.C. (Dec. 16, 2017) – The Johnson C. Smith University men's basketball team bounced back from a disappointing CIAA opening loss to Lincoln by putting together a big second half to down visiting Bowie State 82-65 on Saturday at Brayboy Gym.

After leading by just a single point, 40-39 at halftime, the Golden Bulls steadily built a double-digit cushion, leading by as many as 19 points.

Tied at 55-55, the 11^th of the game, JCSU put together an 11-0 run to take the 66-56 lead following a Cayse Minor (Winston-Salem, N.C.) basket with 6:01 to play.  After BSU cut the lead to eight points (66-58), JCSU surged again, this time going up by a 75-61 count after
Christian Kirchman (Roanoke, Va) canned two free throws with 2:09 left.  JCSU then put the game away, putting together a 7-0 spurt to lead 80-63, capped by a
Roddric Ross (Forest City, N.C.) three-pointer.

A Kirchman step-back jumper gave JCSU it's largest lead of the game, 19 points (82-63) with 31 seconds left to finish the JCSU scoring.  BSU would add a Saiquan tip-in with 26 seconds left to provide the 82-65 final.

JCSU shot 51.9% from the field on a 28-of-54 outing and hit 7-of-15 from three-point range, good for 46.7%.  BSU struggled from the field, returning a 32.3% outing on a 20-of-62 effort and hit 5-of-20 from deep, good for 25%.

Individually, Minor scored a career-best 20 points and grabbed six rebounds for JCSU.  Ross finished with 19 and four rebounds.  Senior guard Robert Davis (West Friendship, Md.) had 14 points and a team-high eight rebounds while Kirchman finished with 10 points and five assists.

Dayshawn Wells and Ahmaad Wilson led the way for the Bulldogs, finishing with 16 and 10 points, respectively.

The win improves JCSU to 8-2 overall and 1-1 in CIAA play while BSU dips to 5-7, 0-1 in league play. It also snaps a four-game losing streak to the Bulldogs, dating back to Feb. 27, 2014, when JCSU downed BSU 81-77 in the CIAA Tournament.