Firebirds blow past local rival Bowie State, 54-40

Washington, DC: December 8, 2010 – Senior forward Lillian McGill (Admin. Of Justice – Sumter, SC) collected a game-high 14 rebounds, which included the 1,000th for her career, as the UDC women’s basketball team (5-3) snapped a two-game losing streak with a 54 – 40 win over local rival Bowie State University Bulldogs (2-1).

McGill, who passed the 1,000 career points mark last season, also contributed 8 points in the win. The other top scorers for UDC were junior guards Kendra Johnson (Mass Media – Mt. Laurel, NJ) and Jamilia Bonner (Accounting – Mobile, AL), who each had 11 points, and junior forward Stacy Griffith (Architecture – Fredericksburg, VA), who had 10 points on 5 of 9 shooting from the field. Bonner had missed the last two games with a knee injury.

UDC led for all but one minute in the game. After the Bulldogs took the early 2-0 lead on a lay-up by junior Chanita Jordan, UDC struck right back with a three-pointer by graduate student Niqky Hughes (Public Administration – Fort Worth, TX) with 18:50 remaining in the first half. The Firebirds never looked back as they held Bowie scoreless for the next seven minutes while building an 11-2 lead. The lead got as large as 12 points in the first half, and at the break the score was UDC 22, Bowie 13.

In the second half the Firebirds lead never shrank below 7 points, and the largest lead came right before the game ended, when Bonner hit a lay-up to put UDC up by 14 points with 53 seconds remaining. In the second half UDC outscored Bowie 20-16 in the paint, had 7 more points off turnovers, and outscored the Bulldogs 10-2 on fast breaks.

For the game the Firebirds shot 24 of 63 (38.1%) from the field, 2 of 11 (18.2%) from long range, and 4 of 7 (57.1%) from the charity strip. Bowie shot 13 of 52 (25.0%) from the floor, 1 of 13 (7.7%) from beyond the arc, and 13 of 26 (50.0%) from the free-throw line. Senior Brianna Taylor was the leading scorer for the Bulldogs with 10 points.

With the win the Firebirds have now matched the number of home wins they had all of last season, 5. They will look for their first road win of the season on Saturday, December 11, when they head to Richmond, VA to face Virginia Union. The game is at 3:00pm and can be heard live by clicking on the “audio” link on the website www.udcfirebirds.com.