Box Score

The Trojans trailed by 17-points in the final 20 minutes but battled back to defeat Fayetteville State 75-65 in the first round of the CIAA Tournament. Allen Harris scored a game-high 21 points sparking a VSU rally late in the second half.

Virginia State opened the game with a ten point lead over Fayetteville State 12-3. The Broncos quickly caught fire from the field going on a 22-5 run throughout the first half. Virginia State began to struggle from the field only converting on 7 of 23 shot attempts from the field. James Vann led the Trojans with eight points in the first half while Allen Harris had five points. The Trojans went 10 for 13 from the free-throw line with James Vann nailing all three of his attempts, Mike Bynum adding three made, and Christopher Grier's two made free-throws. Fayetteville State forced 11 first turnovers and built a 34-26 halftime lead over Virginia State.

Fayetteville State's lead grew to 48-31 at the 16:04 mark in the second half. Miscues on offense and defensive pressure by the Broncos led to Fayetteville State's huge lead. In an attempt to rally the troops, Christopher Grier and James Vann both hit shots from three-point range for VSU. Then, Kenny Mitchell converted on a three-point play cutting the Broncos lead to single digits (48-40) with 14:24 left.

The momentum shifted to the Trojans as the Broncos began to struggle offensively. The duo of James Vann and Allen Harris kept the Trojans within striking distance of Fayetteville State. At the 8:16 mark, Allen Harris nailed a three-pointer to tie the game at 54-54. He added on two free-throws after a technical foul to the Broncos giving the Trojans their first lead since the opening minutes of the first half.

That was all the Trojans needed to get back in control of the game. With just under eight minutes left in the game, the Trojans finally found their groove. Virginia State improved tremendously offensively with 47% shooting from the field in the second half and 14 of 18 attempts from the free-throw line. Allen Harris made 9 of 10 attempts from the free-throw line on his way to scoring 16 points in the second half. The Broncos struggled from the free-throw line by converting on 8 of 19 attempts in the second half. Christopher Grier made three shots from long range in the second half, scoring 14 points as the Trojans defeated Fayetteville State 75-65 in the opening round of the CIAA Tournament.

Virginia State last won a game in the CIAA Tournament in 2009. The Trojans advance to the second round and will face St. Augustine's on Wednesday at 7:00 p.m.
 
CIAA TOURNAMENT POST GAME QUOTES
Virginia State Men's Basketball
Quotes vs. Fayetteville State (Round 1, Game 1)
 
Darryl Jacobs, Virginia State Head Coach
 
“This is the first time we've won a tournament game since 2009 so this is very gratifying for us as an institution and a program and we've going to try to move this train forward.”
 
General Thoughts On the Game
“It was a tale of two halves. As I told the guys, 'there is no tomorrow unless you take care of today' and that's been my motto going into the tournament. There's no tomorrow unless you handle today.”
 
“They really persevered. I'm really proud of them. They fought hard. They fought through a lot of adversity and down the stretch, we made plays.  I want to commend Fayetteville State University as well because they played a great ball game.”
 
On the Improved Rebounding in the Second Half
I put my senior in, who's been here before. Daniel Awosanya came in and did a fantastic job getting to the boards. He made a lot of hustle plays. I tell the guys that rebounds, even if they come off the rim to chase the ball down and pick it up. They don't necessarily have to come off the rim and you grab it in the air. WE made a lot of hustle plays in the second half. We were very contentious of getting to the backboard and to get to the offensive glass in the second half. I tell the guys that doing two things will win the game for us. You've got to defend and rebound and we were able to do that in the second half.
 
On defending FSU's Tyrrel Tate
We tried to make him a volume scorer. If he's going to get his points, we tried to make sure that he had to take a lot of shot attempts. We really wanted to be physical with him and to lay hands on him. I told the guys 'let's go to church'. Let's lay some hands on him and make him work for every point that he's going to get.”