Hooray! Division basketball has officially commenced throughout the CIAA. The tournament is just over a month away, so now is the time to lock in and decide your identity for the season. Saturday provided a great opportunity to start as it was riddled six with division face-offs alongside Shaw in a non-conference game.
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Virginia State wins Freedom Classic
Defending CIAA champion Virginia Union came into the 24th annual Freedom Classic at rival Virginia State hot. It left with an 88-73 loss to start CIAA North play.
VSU controlled the pace of the game and only allowed Union to lead once: the first shot of the game. Four Trojans finished in double figures in the victory, Jalen Jackson led with 22 points, Cedric Wiggins followed with 18, Cyonte Melvin with 14 and Jamere Howze closed it out with 11 points.
Virginia State has now won 11 straight and 15-3 overall. The Trojans sit atop the CIAA North unbeaten in conference play at 7-0 and 1-0 in the division.
Bowie State defends home court
Bowie State hosted Lincoln in a battle of the northern-most schools, and this game never had a clear-cut winner. Neither teams had the best day shooting and went into halftime knotted up at 29. BSU and LUPA exchanged runs throughout the second half, but Bowie took control with just under seven minutes in regulation and pulled away with the 78-73 victory. The lead changed 10 times and the score tied 13 times throughout regulation. Four Bulldogs ended in double figures, Juwan Smith led with 17 points, David Belle followed with 16, Cameron Hayes contributed 13 and Saiquan Jamison had a double-double with 13 points and 14 rebounds.
Bowie State is now 11-8 and on a six-game win streak after starting 0-5.
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Men’s basketball scores:
Four games were decided by a margin of ten points or less and two teams dominated by over twenty points.
Virginia State (15-3, 7-0, 1-0): 88
Virginia Union (9-6, 5-2, 0-1): 73
Bowie State (11-8, 7-1, 1-0): 78
Lincoln (11-8, 4-4, 0-1): 73
Chowan (11-4, 4-3, 1-0): 64
Elizabeth City State (10-9, 6-2, 0-1): 55
Fayetteville State (3-11, 2-5, 1-0): 85
Johnson C. Smith (3-10, 1-6, 0-1): 62
Winston-Salem State (8-7, 3-4, 2-0): 63
Saint Augustine’s (4-12, 1-7, 0-3): 57
Livingstone (10-6, 3-4, 1-0): 79
Claflin (6-11, 5-7, 3-3): 69
Shaw (6-9, 2-5, 1-1): 97
Bluefield State College: 68
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Top scorers:
Amir Hinton of Shaw University currently leads D2 men’s basketball in points averaging 31.9 points per game.
- Roger Ray (LC): 33 points
- Amir Hinton (Shaw): 31 points
- Tamir Green (LUPA): 25 points
- Roddric Ross (JCSU): 24 points
- Terrell Leach (VUU): 24 points
- Jalen Jackson (VSU): 22 points
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