Box Score
NEWPORT NEWS, VA – The Livingstone men's basketball team held the Apprentice School Builders scoreless for five minutes late in the second half to help propel the Blue Bears to a 78-74 road, non-conference victory Tuesday evening.
The victory avenged an earlier loss to the Builders and improved the Blue Bears' record to 8-5 overall while the Builders fell to 10-9 on the season.
Livingstone came out with the hot hand to start the first half, connecting on its first four shot attempts from the field which built an early 9-4 edge. The Blue Bears continued to lead at 15-11 with 12:48 left, but a 6-0 by the Builders gave Apprentice its first lead of the game at 17-15 with 10:48 to go in the opening half.
The Blue Bears matched the Apprentice run with one of their own, this an 11-4 run which gave Livingstone a 26-21 lead with 7:25 left after a Donte Durant three pointer. Livingstone's lead continued to hold for most of the remainder of the half. Only in the last two minutes did the Builders gain some control. With Livingstone leading 36-33 with 1:59 left, Apprentice took the final seven points of the half and grabbed a 40-36 lead at halftime.
Durant led the Blue Bears at the half with seven points while Darius Cox and Tyler Johnson each added six points. Foul trouble plagued the Blue Bears in the first half as five Livingstone players had two or more fouls.
The Apprentice School held off a Livingstone charge to start the second half and increased their lead to seven points with 14:53 left in the contest. The Blue Bears continue to trail by five with 13:21 before Darius Cox connected on three consecutive three-pointers which keyed an 11-2 run, giving Livingstone a 57-53 lead with 11:08 left.
Over the next four minutes, the two teams battled back and forth with the lead changing hands multiple times. The Builders tied the game at 66-66 with 7:48 left, but then went cold from the field. Over the next five minutes, Livingstone outscored Apprentice 7-0 and had a 73-66 lead as the clock ticked under three minutes left.
Apprentice ended its scoring drought with 2:48 left to get within five at 73-68 and in the final minute put pressure on the Blue Bears to convert their free-throw attempts. In the final minute the Blue Bears hit five of six shots from the charity stripe to solidify the victory.
The Blue Bears shot 45.6 percent from the field including 50 percent from beyond the three-point arc, their second-best three-point shooting night of the season. The Blue Bears survived a rough free-throw shooting night, hitting only 66.7 percent of their attempts.
Livingstone will return to conference play on Thursday when the Blue Bears head to Lawrenceville, VA to take on St. Paul's College at 7:30 p.m. The game is a makeup from the January 10 canceled contest.
