Final Stats
SALISBURY, NC – The Livingstone men's basketball team kicked its season off with a bang Friday evening in the 3rd Annual Highway 52 Tournament as the Blue Bears defeated the Morris College Hornets 93-60 inside New Trent Gymnasium.
Senior forward Greg Henry guided the Blue Bears with 18 points and came up one rebound short of a double-double, finishing with nine. Junior Nasir Austin and sophomore Mark Thomas each also finished in double-figure scoring with 15 and 14 points respectively. Austin also pulled down eight boards.
Livingstone came out very strong on both ends of the court in the first 10 minutes of the contest. Over the initial 9:48 of the game the Blue Bears outscored the Hornets 25-5. The Livingstone lead dipped below the 20-point mark only briefly throughout the remainder of the first half as the Blue Bears took a 47-26 lead into the break.
In the second half the Hornets were unable to make any kind of charge at the Blue Bears as Livingstone was able to increase its lead towards 30 points in the first five minutes. Livingstone hit its largest lead of the game of 33 points with just under two minutes left before winning 93-60.
The Blue Bears hit 46.3 percent of their shots from the field on 38-of-82 from the field including 23.1 percent from three-point range and 63.6 percent from the free-throw line. Livingstone grabbed 50 rebounds to Morris' 43. Livingstone dominated in the paint, outscoring the Hornets 58-20 and 30-14 off turnovers.
In the first game of the tournament, Pfeiffer University defeated Catawba College 95-89 in overtime.
The Blue Bears will face Pfeiffer Saturday at 5 p.m. in the championship game while Catawba will meet Morris at 3 p.m. in the consolation contest.
