Box Score
SALISBURY, NC – The Livingstone men's basketball team erased a 14-point, second-half deficit Monday evening and defeated the St. Augustine's Falcons 75-74 in overtime.
The Blue Bears trailed the Falcons by 14 points with 7:35 to go in game and less than four minutes later the Blue Bears had clawed their way within four with 3:59 to play. St. Augustine's briefly regained a seven-point edge before Livingstone went on a 5-0 run to get within two with 2:44 left in regulation.
The Falcons went back up by four with 2:12 to go, before Darius Cox hit a jumper with 1:42 left and was fouled. Cox converted the free throw to bring Livingstone within one. St. Augustine's continued to hit clutch shots down the stretch and went back up by three with 1:25 remaining. Livingstone had multiple opportunities on its next possession to score, but couldn't. The Blue Bears fouled St. Augustine's Darrell Glass to proceeded to miss both free throws.
After the second missed free throw, Trone Jackson rebounded the ball for the Blue Bears, but turned it over only a few seconds later. Glass was again fouled and went to the free-throw line. He converted the first, but missed the second and Tyler Johnson grabbed the board. The Blue Bears came down and Jackson found Carl Boswell for a three-pointer to get Livingstone within one with 36 seconds left.
Livingstone took a timeout following the Boswell bucket and St. Augustine's was set to inbound the ball. Before the Falcons were able to get the ball in, Nick Chamblee was called for an offensive foul, giving the ball back to Livingstone with 34 seconds left. Jackson got the inbound pass and held the ball near midcourt for more than 20 seconds before driving to the basket. Jackson failed to get the bal l in the hoop but was fouled and went to the charity stripe with nine seconds left. Jackson hit the first free throw to tie the game, but missed the second and the Falcons got the rebound. St. Augustine's called a timeout with five seconds left to set up one final play. The Falcons drove up the court but solid Blue Bear defense didn't allow a shot and the game headed to overtime.
St. Augustine's got the opening tip and the first three points of overtime and led 70-67 less than a minute into the extra period. After Boswell hit one of two free throws with 3:50 left, Tyler Johnson tied the game at 70-70 with a jumper at 2:48 of overtime.
Livingstone worked inside and at the free-throw line to open up a three-point advantage with 1:44 left. Glass for St. Augustine's got the Falcons within one with two free throws with 1:32 remaining. With just over a minute to go Boswell missed a three-point attempt, but Jackson was able to corral the rebound to pull some more time off the clock. Jackson missed a jumper with 30 seconds left and the ball went back to the Falcons.
St. Augustine's took a timeout with 16 seconds left to set up their offense. Shaun Washum hit a jumper in the paint with 11 seconds on the clock to give the Falcons a 74-73 lead. Livingstone took a timeout of its own to plan its attack. The Blue Bears were set for one attempt. Jackson took the ball near the bench and with less than 10 seconds left called for a screen from Tyler Johnson. Jackson drove around the screen towards the basket and hit a layup and was fouled with three seconds left. Jackson missed the free throw and Glass grabbed the ball for the Falcons. Nick Chamblee threw up a desperation three-pointer at the buzzer that never made it to the rim and the Blue Bears came away with a thrilling victory.
Livingstone improved to 11-5 overall, 6-3 in the conference and 2-1 in the division with the victory and is currently on a four-game winning streak. St. Augustine's fell to 6-12 overall, 4-5 in the CIAA and 1-2 in the Southern Division.
Darius Cox led all scorers with 24 points and grabbed nine rebounds, falling just short of a double-double. Aaron Wilson also added 14 points while Trone Jackson finished with 13 points.
The Blue Bears shot 34.6 percent from the field including 30.4 percent from three-point range. Free throws continued to be a problem as they hit only 56 percent of their attempts from the charity stripe. St. Augustine's won the rebounding battle 54-47 and also outscored the Blue Bears 32-22 in the paint.
Livingstone will step out of conference on Thursday when they head south to Sumter, SC to take on Morris College in a 6 p.m. contest.
