Box Score
SALISBURY, NC – The Livingstone men's basketball team picked up a crucial divisional victory Saturday evening, downing the Johnson C. Smith Golden Bulls 82-65 and earning the third seed out of the Southern Division for the 2011 CIAA Tournament.
The Blue Bears improved to 14-11 overall, 9-8 in the conference and 5-5 in the Southern Division. Johnson C. Smith fell to 15-10 overall, 11-6 in the CIAA and 4-6 in the division.
Livingstone will open the conference tournament on Wednesday at 7 p.m. against St. Paul's College who is the sixth seed out of the CIAA Northern Division. The Blue Bears defeated the Tigers twice this season, once at home and once on the road.
Johnson C. Smith got the upper hand early in Saturday's contest jumping out to an 18-9 lead with 13:42 left in the first half, forcing Livingstone to take a timeout. Out of the timeout, the Blue Bears went on a 10-2 run to close within one point with 9:58 remaining in the half. The Blue Bears continued the pressure and retook a 25-24 lead with 8:35 on the clock.
Livingstone increased its lead to four points at 34-30 with 5:30 to play, but a quick 5-0 run by the Golden Bulls turned the scoreboard away from the Blue Bears 35-34. Livingstone didn't stay down long as it held Johnson C. Smith to only two points over the final 4:54 of the first half and took a 42-37 lead into the break.
Johnson C. Smith kept the game close to start the second half and regained a 48-47 advantage over the Blue Bears with 15:39 to play in the contest. Over the next five minutes to two takes battled up and down the court, trading buckets and leads.
The Blue Bears led by only one at 61-60 with 10:06 remaining, and then the Livingstone defense went to work holding the Golden Bulls to only five points over the final 10 minutes of the game. The Blue Bears started with a big 10-1 run to open up a 71-61 lead with 6:21 left. Johnson C. Smith couldn't get shots to fall over the final minutes and the Blue Bears pulled away for the big 82-65 victory.
Trone Jackson led the Blue Bears with 17 points off the bench accompanied by Nasir Austin who scored 15 points and had five rebounds. Greg Henry was the leading starter with 12 points and seven rebounds. The Blue Bear bench players outscored the Golden Bulls reserves 51-9 for the game.
Livingstone had a solid night shooting the ball, hitting 51.7 percent of its shots from the field, 30.8 percent from three-point range and 78.3 percent from the charity stripe. After allowing the Golden Bulls to shoot 51.7 percent in the first half, the Blue Bears allowed only nine buckets in the second half. There were not a lot of missed shots Saturday, but Livingstone won the rebounding battle 34-28.
