Box Score

SALISBURY, NC – The St. Augustine's Falcons scored 22 second-chance points Thursday night and downed the Livingstone women's basketball 70-56.

The Blue Bears came out cold to start the first half and the Falcons were able to jump out to an early 6-2 lead and continued to lead at 8-4 with 14:03 to play in the opening stanza.  Livingstone responded with a 5-0 run and went up 9-8 with 9:52 to play in the first half.  The two teams then battled back and forth, trading buckets on both ends of the court. 

St. Augustine's regained a one-point edge with 2:16 to play at 21-20 and were able to push their lead to six points with 29 seconds left in the first half.  The Blue Bears were able to score the final two points of the half from the charity stripe and trailed by only four points at 26-22 at halftime.

Elicia Gilliam-Washington led the Blue Bears with five points at the half and four Blue Bears each had three rebounds.  Rebounds hurt the Blue Bears in the first half as the Falcons gabbed 34 to the Blue Bears' 22.  The Falcons had 17 offensive rebounds which led to 10 second-chance points.

Livingstone came out strong to start the second half and looked primed to regain control of the contest.  The Blue Bears grabbed a 29-28 lead and continued to lead at 35-32 with 16:15 left in the contest.  After trailing by three, the Falcons went on a 10-0 run, getting them out to a 44-37 lead with 11:23 on the clock.  After that, the Blue Bears were never able to get closer than five points as the Falcons ran out to as much as a 17-point advantage before winning by 14 points.

Junior forward Cassaundra Rhodes led the Blue Bears with 12 points while sophomore guard Rashida Elbourne scored 11 points.  Junior forward Brittany Wright finished with nine points and nine rebounds.

As a team the Blue Bears shot 33.3 percent from the field and the same from beyond the three-point arc.  The Falcons grabbed 19 more rebounds than the Blue Bears including 27 offensive rebounds which led to their 22 second-chance points.  Livingstone also got very little production from the players on its bench, as the bench players scored only 10 points.

With the loss, the Blue Bears fell to 8-14 overall, 4-11 in the CIAA and 2-3 in the division.  St. Augustine's improved to 13-9 overall, 9-6 in the conference and 3-2 in the western division.

The Livingstone women's basketball team will return to their home court on Saturday evening when they host the Chowan Hawks at 5:30 p.m.