Bowie State (5-2) led 68-67 when Ali Djim (five points, six rebounds) went to the line to shoot two. Djim missed both, and a scrum ensued after the second miss for the rebound. Amidst the combustion for the rebound, Bowie State’s Bryan Wilson made a loose-ball foul on Flemming with six seconds showing on the clock, which sent the graduate student forward to the line at the other end.
Flemming, a 63-percent free-throw shooter on the season, was 0-1 on his only free-throw of the day in the first half, as he walked up the floor to shoot a crucial pair. He calmly sank both to give his team a 69-68 lead – the first and only lead of the second half for the Lightning.
The Bulldogs quickly worked the ball up the floor and Byron Westmorland (21 points, six rebounds) had a decent look at a three, but it rimmed out. Rasheem King grabbed the offensive rebound and put up an off-balance layup, but it fell off the mark as time expired and the Lightning bench rushed out onto the court in jubilation.
This win marked the first time the Lightning have defeated a ranked opponent in eighth-year head coach Chuck Hammond’s tenure at GBC. It was also their fifth straight win of the season as they improved their overall mark to 6-5.
GBC will next take on another ranked opponent in #23, Virginia Union. Hammond and the Lightning will try to defeat two straight ranked opponents for the first time in school history when they meet Virginia Union in the Virginia Union/Virginia State Christmas Tournament on Wed., Dec. 29 at 6 p.m.
Senior forward Terrence Parkes led the way offensively with 23 points and five rebounds while senior swingman Sam McDuffie came off the bench to score 19 and grab a team-high seven rebounds. For Parkes, this marked his fifth scoring output of 20 or more, and McDuffie’s 19 sent him past Nate Lewis (’06) for second on the school’s all-time leading scorer’s list with 1,150 career points.
Parkes scored 17 of his game-high 23 in the second half as he made 7-of-10 from the field, including 3-of-4 from three-point range. McDuffie, who had a team-high eight in the first half, also pitched in 11 in the second stanza, shooting 5-for-8 at the free-throw line down the stretch.
Senior guard Jon Crawford scored the Lightning’s first five points of the game to help GBC get out to an early 9-5 lead, capped by a Lawrence Livingston (four points, three rebounds) layup.
After a Wilson three-pointer for the Bulldogs cut the lead to 9-8, Parkes and McDuffie each made a pair of free-throws as part of a 4-0 run to give the Lightning their largest lead of the half, 13-8.
They would lead by five again 26-21, but a Westmorland three-point shot started a 23-7 barrage by the Bulldogs over the final 5:03 of the first half, and Bowie State had the largest lead of the half by either team, 44-33.
Parkes opened the scoring in the second half with a layup to cut the lead to nine, but a 7-0 Bulldog run gave Bowie State their largest lead of the game, 51-35 at the 17:08 mark.
Again Parkes hit a three which began a 7-0 Lightning run in response, and again the lead was down to nine (52-43) after a Flemming layup at 15:29.
Slowly but surely, the Lightning kept gaining more and more ground, as they continued to have an answer each time Bowie State looked as though it was going to pull away.
Trailing by nine after Westmorland and Parkes traded baskets, McDuffie took matters into his own hands as he blocked a Westmorland layup attempt, grabbed the loose-ball rebound and took it in coast-to-coast for the layup to cut the lead to seven, 54-47.
After turnovers at both ends, Bowie State’s Julian Williams made a nifty layup to put the Bulldogs back up nine, only to have Parkes hit his third three-point shot of the half and cut the lead to six, 56-50.
The next 2:11, the Lightning went scoreless while the Bulldogs went on a 5-0 run and looked as though they would run away with the game with a 61-50 lead with 12:29 left to play.
But GBC kept fighting on, as Azeez Ellegood (eight points, three assists, three steals) knocked down one of his two three-point shots of the day as the Lightning scored 10 of the game’s next 11 points to pull within two, 62-60 with 5:58 left to play.
Consecutive layups by Eric Vann (eight points, five rebounds) and Wilson gave Bowie State back a six-point lead (67-61) with a little under four minutes left in regulation, but McDuffie made 3-of-4 free-throws during two consecutive trips to the stripe to cut the lead back down to three, 67-64.
The Lightning played good, aggressive defense the next Bowie State trip down the floor, but bailed the Bulldogs out late in the shot clock with a foul and sent Darren Clark (14 points, 10 rebounds) to the line. Clark missed the first but made the second to make it a two-possession game.
Quickly down the other end, Parkes made his third three-point attempt of the half off an assist from Ellegood, and cut the lead to one, 68-67 with 47 seconds left in the game.
Bowie State then melted the clock down before Westmorland put up a jumper that fell off the mark with 11 seconds left. Djim was able to come up with the offensive rebound, and Flemming had to foul him with seven seconds left.
After Djim missed both, Flemming corralled the loose-ball rebound and was fouled by Wilson in the process. He sank both to give the Lightning the 69-68 win in stunning fashion.
The Lightning outshot the Bulldogs 46 percent to 29 percent in the second half (42%-35% for the game) and made 4-of-9 from three-point range to BSU’s 1-of-7 in the closing frame.
Hammond’s bench, though he only used two subs (Flemming and McDuffie) outscored Bowie State’s bench 27-5 even though the Bulldogs used six subs throughout the game. The Lightning were also a bit more efficient on the offensive end with 11 assists to 12 turnovers as compared to BSU’s nine assists and 15 turnovers.
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