Box Score
MURFREESBORO, NC – Brittany Wright scored a career-high 30 points and recorded her fifth double-double of the season Thursday as the Blue Bears picked up a 77-73 CIAA road victory over the Chowan University Hawks.
Livingstone improved to 9-3 overall and 4-1 in the conference with the victory while Chowan fell to 5-9 overall and 2-4 in the CIAA.
Wright led all scorers with 30 points and also pulled down 12 rebounds. Wright is the first 30-point scorer for Livingstone since before the 2003-2004 season. Three other Blue Bears scored in double-figures as Cassaundra Rhodes finished with 12 points while Montiya Harrison added 11 and Jasmine Murray scored 10 points.
Livingstone and Chowan battled it out for a full 40 minutes on Thursday with neither team able to really pull away from the other. The Hawks were able to grab an early lead on the Blue Bears, jumping ahead 12-7 with 13:19 left in the first half. Livingstone regained a 15-14 edge with 11:22 left, but again the teams went back and forth with the lead.
Chowan again held a five-point edge with 8:02 left, but the Blue Bears fought back to grab the lead with 5:40 remaining. As the clock ticked under three minutes left in the first half Chowan held a 35-33 lead, but then went cold from the field. Livingstone finished the second half on a 10-2 run over the final 2:39 to take a 43-37 lead into the break.
The Blue Bears tried to pull away from the Hawks to start the second half and got their lead up to nine points just 1:40 into the second stanza, but the lead was short lived. Chowan was able to get back within three with 14:42 left, but Livingstone responded again to go back up by seven with 13:43 left.
Livingstone held a comfortable lead over the Hawks for the majority of the second half, but Chowan looked poised to overtake the Blue Bears after a mini run midway through the half got them within two with 8:21 left. After the Blue Bears took a timeout, Livingstone went on a 9-2 run to get its lead back to nine points with just over four minutes to play.
In the final minute the Hawks put pressure on the Blue Bears after Livingstone was able to convert only six of its 10 free-throw attempts. With 22 seconds left the Hawks were down by only five, but the Blue Bears held strong defensively to take home the 77-73 victory.
The Blue Bears had their third-best shooting game of the season Thursday, connecting on 26-of-60 shot attempts from the field. Livingstone also had good success on the boards as well, pulling down 51 rebounds to 40 for Chowan.
The Blue Bears will take on Johnson C. Smith in their next contest on Saturday at 5:30 p.m. in Charlotte, NC.
