Box Score

SALISBURY, NC – The Livingstone men's basketball team held Shaw to only 11 points in the second half Thursday, downing the Bears 53-49.

With the victory the Blue Bears improved to 9-8 overall, 6-5 in the CIAA and 1-0 in the Western Division while Shaw fell to 10-8 overall, 7-4 in the conference and 0-1 in the division.

Junior guard Ronney Freeman scored a career-high as a Blue Bear Thursday, totaling 12 points in 20 minutes of play while senior forward Megail Cannon added 11 points and eight boards and senior guard Aaron Caruthers had 10 points.

Livingstone got out to a strong start against Shaw, taking six of the first seven points to go up 6-1 just under four minutes into the contest.  Shaw battled back, however, going on a 12-6 run to take their first lead of the game 13-12 with 13:11 to play in the first half.

The Blue Bears trailed by only two points with 6:26 to play, but Shaw turned up the heat in the waning minutes of the first half.  Shaw closed the first half on a 15-5 run and took a 38-26 lead into the break.

Ronney Freeman had 10 of his 12 points in the first half, connecting on all four of his shots including two from long distance.  Cannon also had seven points in the first stanza.

In the second half the Blue Bears put the hammer down defensively on Shaw, allowing them to hit only four shots from the field of the 20 that they attempted.  Livingstone held Shaw to only five points of the first 10 minutes of the second half, yet only scored 11 themselves and still trailed by six points with 9:11 to play.

After trailing by six, the Blue Bears went on an 8-0 run and took their first lead of the second half at 45-43 with 5:34 to play.  Two free throws by Shaw with 2:26 left tied the game at 45, but Livingstone went back up two with 2:02 to play.  Via the free-throw line, Livingstone was able to increase their lead to five points with 22 seconds left, a lead that they didn't relinquish.

The Blue Bears shot 40.4 percent from the field over 40 minutes including 33.3 percent from beyond the three-point arc.  Livingstone continued to struggle at the free-throw line, hitting only seven of their 17 attempts.  The Blue Bears got big minutes and points from their bench as players off the bench scored 35 points for the team.

The Blue Bears will be back in action on Saturday evening when they travel to face St. Augustine's College for a 7:30 p.m. contest.