MURFREESBORO - The women's basketball team dropped their season opener tonight to Virginia State University with a final score of 69-64. The Lady Trojans scored 28 second chance points and grabbed 23 offensive boards to hang on to beat the Hawks in their first-ever CIAA basketball game. Both teams had 25 turnovers in the game but the Lady Trojans were able to convert 26 points off Chowan's turnovers while the Hawks dumped in 20 points off VSU's turnovers. Tonight's game was originally slated to start at 5:30pm but was pushed back to a 7:15pm start after scheduling conflicts.
After taking 27-23 lead into halftime, Virginia State University scored 42 second half points to take the win. But Chowan didn't go easily and came to battle in the second half of play. The Hawks took their first lead of the game at the 11:02 mark when
Brittany Nicholson converted a lay up and a foul shot, giving her team a 43-41 lead. VSU's Janelle McDowell drained a three pointer two minutes later to put her team up 46-43. But back-to-back buckets by Chowan's Ransheeda Jennings gave her team a 50-48 lead with just over 8:00 minutes to play in the game.
McDowell's lay up at the 7:20 mark of the second period gave the Lady Trojans a 53-51 lead that they would hold on to for the remainder of the game. They came away with the 69-64 win over Chowan.
Chowan hit 23-55 from the floor (42%) while Virginia State shot 36%, hitting 21-58 of their shots form the floor. The Lady Trojans won the battle of the boards with 45 total rebounds over Chowan's 33.
Jennings led all scorers tonight with 20 points. She also had six steals and four assists.
Naomi Walters contributed 13 points for Chowan while
Najah Harris had seven assists and eight points.
For Virginia State, Rhon'Neisha Taylor dropped 18 points and Morgan McGill had 15 points and eight rebounds.
The Hawks move to 0-1 overall and 0-1 in the CIAA while the Lady Trojans move to 1-0 and 1-0 in league play.
Chowan will host Bowie State University on Saturday at 2:00pm in their next outing.
