Box Score
SALISBURY, NC – The Livingstone men's basketball team dominated the Virginia State Trojans Thursday in an 89-59 CIAA victory.
With the victory the Blue Bears improved to 6-3 overall and 2-1 in the CIAA. Virginia State fell to 1-12 overall and 0-5 in the conference.
All but one Livingstone player landed on the score sheet led by Nasir Austin who finished with 20 points. Darius Cox fell just short of a double-double, scoring 17 points and pulling down nine boards. Greg Henry also scored 12 points in the victory.
Livingstone came out strong to start the first half, going up 8-0 less than two minutes into the contest. Virginia State, however, quickly got back into the game behind a 9-2 run and were down only one with 16:01 left in the first half. Over the next 5:54 the Blue Bears went on a tear, scoring 14 unanswered points to grab a 15-point edge with 10:07 left.
Over an 11 minute and 15 second span of the first half the Blue Bears held the Trojans to only one point which allowed them to open a 23-point lead with 4:46 left. Virginia State got back a few points before the break and the Blue Bears led 43-26 at halftime.
Virginia State grabbed the first three points of the second half to get within 14, but that was the closest they got for the remainder of the contest. Other than the first 1:36 of the second half, the Blue Bear lead stayed in the 20-point range. Livingstone hit the 30-point cushion with just over seven minutes and took home an 89-59 victory.
The Blue Bears shot 54 percent from the floor including 36.4 percent from beyond the three-point arc. Livingstone had marked improvement at the free-throw line, hitting 73.8 percent of its attempts. Virginia State connected on 42.3 percent of its shots from the field, but struggled at the free-throw line, converting only 44 percent of their attempts.
Livingstone will hit the floor again on Tuesday when it hosts the Bowie State Bulldogs for a CIAA clash at 7:30 p.m. inside Trent Gymnasium.
