Final Stats

SALISBURY, NC – The Livingstone men's basketball team committed 20 turnovers Saturday that led to 26 Pfeiffer points as the Falcons defeated the Blue Bears 72-62 in Livingstone's final game before starting the conference season.

Livingstone, who previously defeated Pfeiffer in the Highway 52 Championship on November 12, was unable to get a true rhythm going from the onset of the contest.  The largest lead for the Blue Bears, of three points, came with 13:56 remaining in the first half.  Pfeiffer led by as much as eight points in the first half with 1:51 remaining, but Omar Ford-Bey hit his only three-pointer on eight attempts to cut the lead to five, but the Falcons put in one more bucket before the break to take a 32-25 lead into halftime.

Pfeiffer came out very aggressively to start the second half and within the first three minutes had opened a double-digit lead over the Blue Bears.  The Falcons held their largest lead of the contest of 15 points with 5:27 remaining, but Livingstone had one more run left in it. 

The Blue Bears went on an 8-0 run to cut the deficit to seven, but a clutch three-pointer by the Falcons sent their lead back to 10.  Livingstone wasn't down for long and was able to get the Pfeiffer advantage down to only five with 1:08 remaining  on a Trone Jackson layup, but the Blue Bears hit only one more shot over the final 68 seconds and fell 72-62.

Nasir Austin led the Blue Bears with 14 points and also recorded six blocks, a career high.  Josh Hodge was also in double-figure scoring, totaling a career-high 11 points.  Tyler Johnson was strong on the boards for the Blue Bears, leading all players with a career-high 16 rebounds.

The Blue Bears finished shooting 34.3 percent from the floor but only hit 4-of-26 three-point attempts.  Points were also left at the charity stripe as Livingstone converted only 10-of-18 free throw attempts.  The Blue Bears won the battle of the boards 50-46, but in the end the 19-point difference on turnovers proved costly.

Livingstone will open the new year on Thursday, January 5, 2012 at 7:30 p.m. when they host the Vikings of Elizabeth City State University, which will be the conference opener for both teams.