Box Score
SALISBURY, NC – The Livingstone women's basketball team avenged an early-season overtime loss to the St. Paul's Tiger with their own overtime victory Saturday evening, 88-82.
With the victory the Blue Bears improved to 4-6 overall and 2-4 in the CIAA while St. Paul's fell to 2-9 overall and 1-6 in the conference.
Freshman guard Kelcyn Manurs led the Blue Bears with 17 points on 7-of-11 shooting including 3-of-5 from beyond the arc. Four other Blue Bears finished in double figures: senior guard Kayler McBride and junior guard Montiya Harrison both finished with 14, junior forward Brittany Wright notched 12 and freshman guard Khalia Boston added 10.
St. Paul's came out with the strong hand to open the game as they quickly jumped out to a 7-3 lead three minutes into the half. The Blue Bears battled back to tie the game a 7-7. Livingstone took it's first lead of the game with 12:37 left behind two free throws by sophomore forward Shaquetta Brooks, her only points of the half.
Livingstone slowly built their lead of the next eight minutes and hit a double-digit advantage behind a McBride three-pointer with 4:51 to play in the half. St. Paul's was able to cut the Livingstone lead down to four points with 2:17 to play, but the Blue Bears built it back to seven points to end the half. Livingstone led 46-39 at the break.
Montiya Harrison led the Blue Bears with 14 points in the first half and also pulled down five boards. Brittany Wright also added eight points and McBride and Elicia Gilliam-Washington both had seven in the first half.
Livingstone continued to lead through the first seven minutes of the second half before St. Paul's took their first lead of the second half at the 12:18 mark. With the score tied 51-51 with 11:46 to play, the Tigers went on a 12-3 run to open a nine-point lead with 8:06 to play. With 3:10 to play the Blue Bears trailed by six, but went on their own 9-2 run to retake a one-point edge.
With 1:38 to play in the second half, St. Paul's Tatiana Ellis was fouled shooting a three-pointer. She hit all three free throws to put the Tigers up 75-73. Both teams missed shots over the next minute and with 29 seconds to go the Tigers hit one of two free throws to go up by three. The Blue Bears brought the ball down the court and with 10 seconds to go Manurs took an off-balance three-pointer that she banked home to tie the game at 76. With one second on the clock the Tigers turned the ball over and Livingstone had a shot to win the game in regulation, but a three-pointer by sophomore guard Rashida Elbourne from just inside the mid-court line was just off and the game headed to overtime.
The first minute and a half of overtime went scoreless and Livingstone got on the board first behind a jumper from Manurs with 3:32 on the clock. The Blue Bears were in foul trouble for most of the second half and overtime and free throws allowed the Tigers to stay close as they were only able to connect on one shot from the field in overtime. In the last minute of the overtime the Blue Bears converted their free-throw attempts to seal the victory, 88-82.
As a team the Blue Bears shot 38.7 percent from the field including 36.8 percent from beyond the arc. The Blue Bears out-rebounded the Tigers 52-42 and came away with 46 points from their bench players.
The Livingstone women will head out on the road for their next contest as they face the Elizabeth City State University Vikings Monday at 5:30 p.m.
