Box Score

MISENHEIMER, NC – The Livingstone men's basketball team downed Pfeiffer University 94-88 Tuesday evening, avenging a season-opening loss to the Falcons.

With the victory, the Blue Bears improved to 4-1 on the season while the Falcons fell to xx-xx.

Pfeiffer took the early lead over the Blue Bears 8-4, but Omar Ford-Bey started a big run for the Blue Bears, knocking down a three-pointer while getting fouled.  Ford-Bey converted the free-throw attempt and the game was tied at 8-8 with 14:08 left in the first half.  Over the next 4:59 of the first half the Blue Bears went on a 21-5 run to take a 25-13 lead over the Falcons.

Pfeiffer fought back to get within four points at 27-13 with 6:20, but another Livingstone run gave the Blue Bears a 41-30 edge with just over two minutes left in the opening half.  Livingstone led by 11 with 1:45 left, but the Falcons took the final six points of the half to cut the Blue Bear lead to 43-38 at the break.

The Falcons kept the game close early in the second half, but the Blue Bears slowly worked to increase their lead.  Livingstone took its lead back to double digits with 14:53 left and hit a 16-point cushion with 13:11 remaining.  Pfeiffer, however, was far from done as it got back within six points with 6:18 left.

Livingstone responded to the Falcon pressure and with 4:04 left again grabbed an 11-point edge at 84-73.  The Blue Bears held a 14-point lead with 2:03 to play, but then had to fight off a furious Pfeiffer attack.  With 40 seconds left in the contest the Blue Bear lead was down to seven.  Despite struggling from the free-throw line down the stretch the Blue Bears held off the Falcons for a 94-88 victory.

Donte Durant led five Blue Bears in double figure scoring, totaling 16 points while Greg Henry had 13 points and five rebounds.  Darius Cox, Omar Ford-Bey and Nasir Austin each added 12 points.  Cox also had nine boards while Austin, in his first action of the year, also had six rebounds.

Livingstone shot 51.7 percent from the field including 53.3 percent from beyond the three-point arc.  The Blue Bears struggled from the free-throw line, converting only 61.9 percent of their attempts.  The Blue Bears won the rebounding battle 42-41.

The Blue Bears will have one more game this year on Sunday when they host the Newport News Apprentice School at 4 p.m. inside Trent Gymnasium.