Box Score
CHARLOTTE, NC – The Livingstone women's basketball team couldn't stop the hot shooting of Johnson C. Smith Saturday evening as the Blue Bears fell in their divisional opener 82-50 to the Golden Bulls.
Livingstone struggled from the field in the first half, hitting only six of its 29 attempts from the field. Johnson C. Smith got off to a hot start, going up 9-0 less than three minutes into the contest. The Blue Bears fought back and got within four on a 7-2 run and trailed 11-7 with 14:30 left in the first half.
Despite the strong run to get the Blue Bears back in the contest, the Golden Bulls slowly rebuilt their lead. With 10 minutes to play in the half, Johnson C. Smith was up by 13. Livingstone trailed by 15 with 3:32 left, but Johnson C. Smith closed the first half on a 10-2 run to take a 45-22 lead into the break.
The Blue Bears have been a strong second half team so far this season and Saturday it looked as though Livingstone was going to pull back into the contest. The Blue Bears took seven of the first nine points of the second half to cut the deficit to 47-29, but then the Blue Bears went 3:44 without another bucket as Johnson C. Smith went on an 8-0 run.
After Jasmine Murray connected on a jumper with 13:14 left, the Blue Bears went scoreless from the field until Elicia Gilliam-Washington put an end to the rough stretch with a bucket with 7:07 to go. Despite the bucket, the game was already out of reach for Livingstone.
Livingstone shot only 21.9 percent from the field including hitting only two of 17 three-point attempts. Johnson C. Smith shot 47 percent from the field and 35.7 percent from beyond the arc. The Golden Bulls also dominated in the paint, outscoring the Blue Bears 40-20 down low.
The Blue Bears fell to 9-4 overall, 4-2 in the conference and 0-1 in the division with the loss. Johnson C. Smith improved to 14-1 overall, 7-1 in the CIAA and 1-0 in the Southern Division.
The Blue Bears will remain away from home on Thursday when they travel to Lawrenceville, VA for a 5:30 p.m. contest. This is a makeup from the game postponed on January 10, 2011.
