District of Columbia Outdueled by Purple Knights in Home ECC Contest

WASHINGTON, DC – The Firebirds erased a 17-point deficit midway through the first half and actually led by one (46-45) as late as three minutes into the second half, but Bridgeport blew the game open with a 20-3 surge over the next five minutes and went on to win comfortably by a final score of 80-61 in East Coast Conference action Monday night from UDC Gym.

Junior transfer guard Prince Ritson (Psychology – Greenbelt, MD/Bowie St.) led all scorers with 18 points on 7-of-13 FG shooting (4-of-5 from long range).  Junior transfer forward Lenjo Kilo (Biology – Silver Spring, MD/Seton Hill), the ECC's leading rebounder and third-leading scorer, produced his 8^th double-double of the season with 15 points and 11 rebounds, and reigning ECC Rookie of the Week, freshman guard Reggie Sidbury (Social Work – Landover, MD/Charles Herbert Flowers HS) pitched in 11 points off the bench.

Also, sophomore guard Omar Abbas (Electrical Engineering – Alexandria, Egypt/Egyptian American HS) added 12 points, and sophomore transfer forward Clenso Brannon III (Graphic Design – Washington, DC/College of Southern Maryland) registered five points, five rebounds and a season and game-high seven assists.

Ivan Simic paced the Purple Knights (12-9, 10-5 ECC) to their fourth straight win with a double-double of 17 points and a game-high 12 rebounds. Center Sean Berry added 15 points and six rebounds and point guard JoJo Swift added 11 points and a team-high six assists.

Bridgeport connected on four of its first six three-point attempts as the Purple Knights charged out to a 28-11 lead a little over eight minutes into the game. But starting with a three-pointer in the corner by Sidbury, the Firebirds came storming back to score 28 of the game's next 37 points over the next 11 minutes to take a 39-37 lead with just a minute left to play in the first half. Sidbury and Kilo each scored seven during this stretch which gave UDC its first lead of the night on a pair of free-throws by Abbas. Bridgeport would close out the half on a 4-0 run though, and take a 41-39 lead at intermission.

Ritson opened the scoring in the second half with a three-pointer 20 seconds in to put the Firebirds back in front, 42-41. This was the first of six consecutive lead changes to start the closing period. Brannon III's jumper at the 17:02 mark gave UDC its last lead of the night, 46-45, but a jumper by Berry 18 seconds later put the Purple Knights ahead to stay. Bridgeport went on to out-score UDC 20-3 over the next five minutes and take a 65-49 lead with just under 12 minutes left to play. Twice the Firebirds closed within nine, but that was as close as they would get the rest of the way. The Purple Knights finished the game on a 13-4 run to win by final score of 80-61.

Bridgeport was the better shooting and ball-control offense all night as the Purple Knight out-shot the Firebirds 54-percent to 34-percent from the field and totaled 20 assists to just 10 turnovers compared to UDC's 10 assists and 14 turnovers. Bridgeport had 24 points off of Firebirds turnovers while UDC only had four off of the Purple Knights' turnovers. The visitors also won the rebounding battle 41-34 and out-scored the Firebirds by a whopping 54-14 in the paint.

Next up, the Firebirds (3-17, 1-13 ECC) host ECC newcomer Daemen on Friday, February 14^th at 5 p.m.