Box Score
LAWRENCEVILLE, VA – The Livingstone men's basketball team shot better than 53 percent from the field Thursday evening in a big 78-55 road victory over the St. Paul's College Tigers.
Livingstone improved to 9-5 overall and 4-3 in the conference while St. Paul's fell to 6-9 overall.
Both teams came out battling in the first half and the game got very physical, very quick. The Tigers grabbed an early 7-4 lead, but the Blue Bears went on an 11-2 run to take a 15-9 advantage with 13:04 remaining in the first half. Livingstone continued to lead by eight with 9:22 left, but a quick 6-0 by the Tigers got them within two with 7:31 left.
As the clock ticked under three minutes left in the first half the Blue Bears were holding a six-point edge. Livingstone was able to close the first half on a 7-2 run to take a 50-40 lead into the break.
The Blue Bears dominated down low in the first half, outscoring the Tigers 24-12 in the paint. Darius Cox led the Blue Bears in the first half with nine points and eight rebounds.
St. Paul's came out very aggressive in the opening minutes of the second half, grabbing the first six points and getting within four points with 17:41 left in the game. Livingstone responded with six straight points of its own, but then another quick spurt by the Tigers left the game at 45-39 with 15:37 left.
With the slim six-point lead in hand, the Blue Bears went on a tear, outscoring the Tigers 18-4 over a 3:27 stretch in the middle of the second half which gave Livingstone a commanding 63-42 lead with 11:14 left in the game. Over the final 10 minutes of the contest the Tigers only briefly looked as though they were going to be able to make a comeback, but each attempt was squashed quickly by the Blue Bears to solidify the 78-55 victory.
The Blue Bears shot 53.7 percent from the field for the game including 60.7 percent in the first half. Livingstone also hit 35.3 percent of its three-point attempts, but struggled at the free-throw line, hitting only 14 of 25 attempts.
Livingstone will get only one day rest as the Blue Bears will return to action on Saturday at home for a 7:30 p.m. contest against the Bears of Shaw University.
