Box Score
FAYETTEVILLE, NC – Darius Cox scored a career-high 32 points, but the Livingstone men's basketball team couldn't hold a halftime lead Saturday evening as the Blue Bears fell on the road 92-78 to the Broncos of Fayetteville State University.
The first half was a hard-fought, high-flying battle with the score tied seven times and seven lead changes along with numerous monstrous dunks from both sides. Livingstone held a slim lead in the first four minutes, but an 8-2 run by the Broncos gave Fayetteville a 12-8 advantage with 14:46 left. The Blue Bears regained a 71-6 lead less than three minutes later, but as was the norm the Broncos fought back.
Fayetteville State held its largest lead of the first half of seven points at 36-29 with 6:06 left in the opening stanza. The Blue Bears fought back on a 12-2 run to take a 41-38 lead with 1:44 left and took a 46-42 advantage into the break.
Livingstone led for the first 3:36 of the second half before Fayetteville regained a 53-52 advantage. The Blue Bears went back up by four points with 13:14 left and held a slim one-point edge with 12:59 to play. The Broncos rattled off a 9-1 run and took a 68-62 lead with 9:03 to play.
The Blue Bears got back within one on a three-point play with 7:52 left, but that was as close as Livingstone got for the remainder of the contest. In the final five minutes the Blue Bears were unable to hit the critical bucket to stop the Bronco run before falling 92-78.
Cox' career-high 32 points led all scorers and he also had six rebounds. Carl Boswell was the only other Blue Bears in double figures as he finished with 11 points. Greg Henry led the Blue Bears on the boards with eight rebounds.
Livingstone had stellar first half shooting, as the Blue Bears hit 54.8 percent of their field-goal attempts, but hit only 28.6 percent of their attempts in the second half. The Blue Bears converted 20-of-31 free-throw attempts for the game.
The Blue Bears fell to 12-8 overall, 7-5 in the CIAA and 3-3 in the division while Fayetteville State improved to 11-10 overall, 7-6 in the conference and 3-3 in the Southern Division.
The Blue Bears will host Winston-Salem State University on Monday at 7:30 p.m. The Blue Bears defeated the Rams 81-73 on February 5.
