Box Score
SALISBURY, NC – Cassaundra Rhodes recorded her third double-double of the season Tuesday as the Livingstone women's basketball team upended the Bowie State Bulldogs 64-60.
Rhodes finished with 11 points and 11 rebounds to lead the Blue Bears while Rashida Elbourne scored 13 points and Elicia Gilliam-Washington fell just shy of a double-double with eight points and 10 boards.
Livingstone (8-3, 3-1) came out quite strong to start the first half, putting pressure on the Bulldogs. After the teams were knotted at 4-4, Livingstone went on an 8-1 run to take a 12-5 lead with 14:28 left in the opening half. The Blue Bears slowly increased their lead over the next five minutes and hit its largest lead of the first of 13 points with 9:52 to play.
The 13-point lead was short-lived as Bowie State (7-5, 3-2) went on a 9-0 run to cut the Livingstone lead to four points with 5:57 left in the first half. In the final minute of the first half Bowie was able to come all the way back and tie the game at 26-26 with 55 seconds left, but the Blue Bears took four of the final five points of the half to go into the break with a three-point lead.
The second half started very slow and low-scoring for both teams as the Bulldogs and Blue Bears combined for only 23 total points through the first 10 minutes. Bowie State held a slight edge over Livingstone in those first 10 minutes and tied the game at 40-40, setting up a fierce battle down the stretch.
Livingstone broke the tie, going up 42-40, but Bowie State responded with a 7-2 run to take a 47-44 lead with 5:18 left. On the Blue Bears' ensuing possession, Jasmine Murray knocked down a big three-pointer which sparked an 8-0 Livingstone run, giving the Blue Bears a 52-47 lead and some much-needed breathing room.
In the waning moments of the contest, free throws became vitally important and the Blue Bears hit them when they counted. Livingstone took 12 free throws in the final 1:05 of the game, converting all of them. In the final 15 seconds Livingstone had to work through some tough Bulldog defense. After Bowie got within five with a layup, the Bulldogs stole the inbound pass from Livingstone and banked home a three-pointer to get within two with 15 seconds left, but couldn't get any closer.
Livingstone finished the contest shooting 31.7 percent from the floor, but only 15 percent from three-point range and a stellar 80.8 percent from the charity stripe. Bowie shot 34.8 percent from the floor and also struggled from long range hitting only one of 14 attempts. Just as free throws were key for the Blue Bears, they killed Bowie State. Bowie came into the game as the second-worst free-throw-shooting team in the conference and it continued as the Bulldogs converted only 13-of-35 free-throw attempts.
The Blue Bear women will head on the road for a contest Thursday at Chowan University. Game time against the Hawks is set for 5:30 p.m.
