Box Score
CHARLOTTE, NC – The Livingstone men's basketball team fell in its bid to win the 2011 CIAA Championship Saturday, falling in its first-ever title game, 72-69 to the Shaw University Bears at Time Warner Cable Arena.
Livingstone finishes its 2010-2011 campaign with a 17-12 overall record.
The Blue Bears were led by game MVP and All-Tournament Team selection Darius Cox who finished with 19 points and 11 rebounds. Fellow All-Tournament Team selection Greg Henry finished with 10 points and six boards. Also in double figures was Nasir Austin with 11 points and Carl Boswell who added 10 points.
Mush as they had all tournament, the Blue Bears jumped out to an early lead on Saturday. Livingstone led 12-5 with 13:42 left in the first half, but a 14-4 run by Shaw gave the Bears a 19-16 edge with 8:58 remaining in the opening half. Towards the end of the first half the Blue Bears stayed close and went into the break only down two, 32-30.
Shaw tried to pull away from the Blue Bears early in the second half, but Livingstone held strong and never allowed the Bears to take a comfortable lead. The largest lead for Shaw of nine points came with 8:43 to play, but Livingstone battled back.
With 5:21 left in the contest, the Blue Bears got within three at 55-52, but a big three-pointer on the other end put an end to the Livingstone run. Shaw went back up by seven with 56 seconds left, but Livingstone was still not done.
The Blue Bears continued to trail by six with 25 seconds left, but a layup by Henry got the Blue Bears within 70-66 and then a three pointer by Cox with three seconds left got Livingstone within one at 70-69. Raheem Smith converted two free throws with 2.3 seconds left and a last-second three-point heave by Henry fell short as the season for the Blue Bears came to an end.
Livingstone had a solid night shooting the ball, hitting 46.4 percent of its shots from the field including 61.5 percent of their attempts from three-point range. Free throws were a struggle for the Blue Bears as they converted only 9-of-17 attempts.
