FOR LIFE
Tournament Pairings
Women's Bracket
Men's Bracket
58 thAnnual CIAA Basketball Tournament
Bulldogs Win First CIAA Title
RALEIGH, NC, March 1, 2003---After 30 years of frustration,
the Bowie State University Bulldogs and their ardent supporters got to
taste the sweetness of success with their heart-stopping 72-71 last-minute
win over the Panthers of Virginia Union University to take the 2003 Central
Intercollegiate Athletic Association Men’s Basketball championship.
With the win, the Bulldogs (26-4) earn an automatic bid to their first
NCAA Division II tournament.
 |
AllPro Photo
Tournament
MVP Tim Washington |
“This is like a dream,” said tournament most valuable player
Tim Washington, who led the Bulldogs for the third-consecutive game while
scoring 21 points. “I probably won’t even begin to feel it
until tomorrow.”
“This was quite a game,” said head coach Luke D’Alessio.
“It was a struggle most of the game and I got frustrated but I told
our guys not to get frustrated. We never stopped playing hard and I thought
we had too much senior leadership not to win it down the stretch.”
After splitting two games in the regular season in overtime, the game
promised to be a classic and did not disappoint.
Trailing by one, Bulldogs center Jon Smith swished a 12-foot jumper from
the left baseline with 25 seconds left in the game. The Panthers ran the
clock down and almost turned the ball over when Stephen Moss-Kelley tipped
a pass and just missed recovering it inbounds.
“I was in the low post and able to square back, and let it fly.
It was like I was watching it in slow-motion,” said Jon Smith.
With eight seconds now left, the Panthers (17-10) attempted to inbounds
the ball to Duan Crockett, who had given the Bulldogs fits to the tune
of a game-high 22 points and five assists. Moss-Kelley tipped the pass
and this time was able to recover the loose ball, diving on the ground
and calling timeout.
Jon Smith was fouled on the Bulldogs inbounds play and missed the front
end of the one-and-one, but with just three seconds left, the Panthers
could only get a desperation shot that was not even close.
“The ball was over my head but I was able to reach out and tip it
and then roll over and get it,” said Moss-Kelley of his steal.
Moss-Kelley scored 13 points with three 3-pointers and had one big steal.
Following the script of the first two meetings, the Bulldogs’ big
men Washington and Shawn Hampton were whistled for three fouls in the
first half and the Bulldogs had to battle back from a double-digit deficit
in the second half.
The Bulldogs got the lead down to one three times before an Arthur Lewis
Jr. layup with 6:50 left gave the Bulldogs their first lead since the
15:16 mark of the first half.
The Panthers took a 63-62 lead on a Wayne Wallace jumper over Washington
with 4:20 to go, but the
Bulldogs had time for Cornelius McMurray to provide some clutch shooting.
McMurray had hit a 3-pointer late in the Bulldogs second round game against
Johnson C. Smith University and he immediately countered Wallace’s
jumper with a trey to give the Bulldogs a two-point lead.
The Bulldogs were down 69-67 with 1:07 left in the game when McMurray
swished another one from behind the arc to give the Bulldogs a 70-69 lead.
McMurray was unselfish from the point guard spot scoring nine points on
eight shots and dishing nine assists.
Luqman Jaaber, who connected for three 3-pointers in the first half and
finished with 13 points, answered with a layup to give the Panthers the
lead once more setting up Jon Smith’s heroics.
The Bulldogs started to cut down on the effectiveness of the Panthers’
guards driving to the basket, but when they did, Jon Smith was there.
The senior center scored 12 points but more importantly blocked four shots.
The Bulldogs had a large monkey on their back they had to shake in the
second round as they faced the Golden Bulls of Johnson C. Smith University.
While the Bulldogs had beaten the Golden Bulls soundly in Bowie in January,
the Golden Bulls had knocked the Bulldogs out of the past two CIAA Tournaments.
The Bulldogs were able to lift that load as they came back from a six-point
deficit and foul trouble in the second half, winning 65-63.
Trailing by two with 2:21 to play, the Bulldogs hit a pair of clutch shots.
Moss-Kelly’s 3-pointer from the right corner gave the Bulldogs a
57-56 lead with 1:52 to go. That shot was even more important as it broke
a drought that had lasted 5:16. With 36 seconds to play, Cornelius McMurray
hit his only shot of the game but it was a big one as his 3-pointer gave
the Bulldogs a 61-57 cushion.
The Bulldogs would need that cushion as Vernon Benjamin hit his third
trey of the game, cutting the lead to 61-60.
Free throws by McMurray and Lewis, Jr. built the lead to 65-60, but the
Golden Bulls would not go away as Wayne Hinton sank a long 3-pointer with
two seconds left.
Moss-Kelley missed both of his free throws but the Golden Bulls desperation
shot wasn’t close.
Washington kept the Bulldogs in the game while Jon Smith and Omarr Smith
were in the process of fouling out in the second half. He was too much
for the Golden Bulls to handle as scored 17 points and grabbed 17 rebounds.
Moss-Kelley finished with 14 points while McMurray had seven assists.
The Bulldogs looked to be in good shape early with an 18-10 lead when
old demons appeared for a stretch of 7:59. That was how long it took for
the Bulldogs to score again, at which point the Golden Bulls had built
a 26-18 lead. A Washington free throw broke the drought, but the Bulldogs
went into the locker room down 31-25.
The drought bug had hit the Bulldogs late in the second half as well as
they failed to score from the 7:08 mark until there was just
Benjamin had given the Bulldogs problems in the regular season, and his
3-pointer gave the Golden Bulls (20-8) a 45-34 lead with 15:19 to play.
Benjamin led the Golden Bulls with 25 points, while Hinton had 14 points
and six assists.
The Bulldogs had come back from bigger deficits in the regular season
in the second so they calmly started to turn up the defensive intensity
and sliced into the lead. A Van Norden conventional three-point play capped
the Bulldogs 15-3 run and gave the Bulldogs their first lead of the second
half at 49-48 with 9:16 in the game.
Moments later Van Norden drilled a line-drive 3-pointer that gave the
Bulldogs their 54-50 lead.
Up next for the Bulldogs was the No. 1 seed from the Western Division
in the form of the Eagles from North Carolina Central University.
The Bulldogs had been a double-digit winner against the Eagles in the
regular season, but the Eagles (16-13) were playing well and the game
was a tight 44-44 affair at the end of the first half.
The Bulldogs once again turned up the defensive pressure and broke the
game open with a 15-3 run to open the second half. They would lead by
as much as 24 points in the second half before the Eagles finally succumbed,
99-87.
Washington scored seven of his game-high 24 points during the run while
Omarr Smith had six of his 16 points.
Jon Smith rebounded from fouling out against the Golden Bulls to score
14 points and block three shots. With Omarr Smith in foul trouble in the
first half, McMurray moved to the shooting guard spot and hit all of his
3-pointers in the stanza, scoring the majority of his 14 points. Concentrating
on pounding the ball inside in the second half, McMurray would finish
with five assists.
Coming off the bench, Shawn Hampton gave the Bulldogs relief in the middle
and would finish the game with 12 points and five rebounds in just 13
minutes of action.
James Tucker and Charles Nickens led the Eagles with 19 points, Michael
Noel had 12 and Shawn Ray, who was the Eagles’ leading scorer in
the regular season was held to just 11 points.