Box Score
SALISBURY, NC – The Livingstone men's basketball team squeaked out a 71-65 victory over the Virginia State Trojans Monday night in CIAA action.
With the victory the Blue Bears improved to 6-3 overall and 4-1 in the conference while Virginia State fell to 1-11 overall and 1-7 in the conference.
Junior guard Donte Durant led the Blue Bears with 18 points while senior guard Aaron Caruthers totaled 13 points and sophomore forward Greg Henry had 16 points and seven boards. Junior forward Jarred Stockton led the Blue Bears with 10 boards.
Both teams came out slow to start the game as the teams combined for a total of only 19 points through the first 10 minutes and Livingstone held an 11-8 lead. The Blue Bears slowly increased their lead and their largest lead of 13 points came with 1:55 remaining in the half. Livingstone held a nine-point edge at the half, 34-25.
Livingstone came out strong to open the second half and quickly pumped their lead back to double digits and 13 points less than three minutes into the half. Virginia State, however, went on an 11-2 run to cut the Livingstone lead to just four points with 14:28 to play. The Blue Bears responded with a 6-0 run of their own to go back up by 10.
The teams battled back and forth over the next seven minutes with neither Livingstone able to gain control, nor the Trojans able to climb back into the game. With just over five minutes left the Blue Bears held an 11-point edge and looked to be in good shape, but Virginia State didn't go quietly.
With 22 seconds left, the Trojans' Trey Mines was fouled on a three-pointer. He converted all three of his free throws and Virginia State was only down four. Stockton turned the ball over on the ensuing Blue Bear possession and the Trojans went in for a layup to cut the lead to two. Over the final 14 seconds of the game the Blue Bears converted all four of their free-throw attempts to seal the 71-65 victory.
As a team the Blue Bears shot 51 percent from the field including 42.9 percent from three-point range and 65.2 percent from the free-throw line. The Blue Bears beat the Trojans on the boards 38-31, but lost the turnover battle 21-14.
The Livingstone men will be back in action on Saturday when they host the St. Paul's College Tigers. Tip-off is set for 7:30 p.m.
