Box Score PHOTO GALLERY | Bowie State treated its fourth meeting with Virginia Union like a schoolyard pickup game.
After being beaten enough times in a row, the natural reaction is to say, "Run it back."
Two losses in the regular season and a loss in the CIAA championship game had the Bulldogs looking for revenge.
Just six days after their third meeting, eighth-seeded Bowie State claimed a 63-56 victory Friday in the first round of the NCAA Division II women's Atlantic regional at Union's Barco-Stevens Hall.
"Payback — that's all we could think about," said Bulldogs head coach Shadae Swan. "We just wanted to run it back."
Neither team played with any semblance of grace or control, but for the first time this season, Bowie State (21-9) outplayed the top-seeded Panthers (28-3).
"They made our team play in a fashion that I have never seen us play," Union coach
AnnMarie Gilbert said. "They disrupted us differently than they had in the three previous games."
That disruption started with limiting the damage by seniors
Rachael Pecota and
Alexis Johnson, the CIAA player of the year. Johnson scored 4 points and had 4 rebounds, while Pecota had 8 points and 8 boards.
"The first game, Pecota killed us. The second game, Johnson killed us. The third game, they both killed us," Swan said. "We had to take them out of the game and make anybody else beat us."
Freshman
Shareka McNeill scored a team-high 14 for the Panthers, but she made just 3 of 12 from the floor and battled foul trouble. She was the only Union player in double figures.
The teams slogged through a first quarter that saw a combined 15 turnovers, but Union led 11-8 after the opening 10 minutes.
The Bulldogs, who lost the three earlier meetings by an average of 16.3 points, kept the pressure on in the second quarter and took a 27-26 edge into the break.
Spurred by the play of 5-foot-4 senior guard Kyah Proctor, the Bulldogs had an answer for everything Union had in the second half. During stoppages in play, Proctor bantered with a Union fan near halfcourt who told her she would have to tire at some point. That point never came — she played all 40 minutes and scored 22 points.
"If anything, he motivated me," Proctor said. "I took the energy he was giving me and used it on the court. Obviously, I was doing something if he was yelling at me."
Kiara Colston backed her up with 11 points, and Pere Alexander added 10.
With the loss, the Panthers, last year's national runners-up, and their five seniors see their season end far earlier than expected.
"I really thought we could carry the torch farther," Gilbert said. "But we'll get back. We had a great year."
The Bulldogs, meanwhile, advance to the second round to face Edinboro at 7:30 p.m. Saturday.
"The win means a lot for the program," Swan said. "We're just trying to shift the culture of the program. We just needed to get over this hurdle."
