Box Score
RALEIGH, NC – The Livingstone men's basketball team battled through a defensive contest Saturday night, but fell in overtime 58-56 to the St. Augustine's College Falcons.
The first half was low-scoring, but a solid back and forth battle between two evenly-matched squads. The Blue Bears took the early 6-4 lead, but an 8-0 run by the Falcons gave St. Augustine's a 12-6 advantage with 13:39 remaining in the opening half. Livingstone responded with a 7-0 run in 1:22 to take a 13-12 lead with 12:17 remaining in the half.
The two teams battled back and forth over the final 10 minutes of the first half with the score being tied four times and the lead changing hands four times. With 1:40 left in the half the Falcons held a 26-24 lead, but a three-pointer by Marvin Adams and a big dunk by Greg Henry gave the Blue Bears a 29-26 lead at the break.
Livingstone increased its lead to seven points early in the second half at 35-28 with 16:52, but the Falcons battled back. A 9-0 run by St. Augustine's gave the Falcons a 37-35 lead with 12:43 remaining in the second half. The last 10 minutes of the second half was very much a mirror of the first as the two teams traded leads.
St. Augustine's held a four-point lead with 7:47 remaining, but a 6-0 run by the Blue Bears gave Livingstone a 47-45 edge with 5:37 on the clock. Quintin Redfern put the Blue Bears up by two with 1:23 remaining after hitting one of two free throws, but four straight points by the Falcons gave St. Augustine's a 54-52 lead with 44 seconds left. The Blue Bears brought the ball up the court and Trone Jackson was fouled with 26 seconds left. Jackson converted both free throws to tie the game at 54-54. St. Augustine's couldn't hit a game-winning shot in the final seconds and the game headed to overtime.
The five minutes of overtime only had six points scored between the two squads. Darius Cox put the Blue Bears up 56-54 with 3:31 left. The Falcons tied the game at 56-56 with 2:51 left and neither team scored over the next two and half minutes. In the final 30 seconds the Falcons put up a shot with 15 seconds left that missed, but the ball went out of bounds, last off of the Blue Bears and the Falcons had another chance. With 2.7 second left, Eric Stevenson hit a fade away jumper to put St. Augustine's up 58-56. Livingstone tried a full court pass, but couldn't get a shot off.
Trone Jackson led the Blue Bears with 13 points while Quintin Redfern also scored in double figures with 11 points. Greg Henry led Livingstone with nine rebounds. Livingstone shot 37.5 percent from the field for the game and 20 percent from three-point range. Free throws were a struggle as the Blue Bears converted only 12 of their 22 attempts from the charity stripe.
Livingstone dropped its sixth-straight game with the loss and fell to 12-11 overall, 7-8 in the conference and 3-5 in the division while St. Augustine's improved to 9-15 overall, 7-8 in the CIAA and 3-5 in the Southern Division.
The Blue Bears will look to end the losing skid on Monday when they host the Broncos of Fayetteville State University at 7:30 p.m.
