Final Stats
BOWIE, MD – The Livingstone men's basketball team lost a hard-fought battle Monday night, 69-64, to the nationally-ranked Bulldogs of Bowie State University.
Livingstone had another slow start Monday night as the Bulldogs pulled out to an 11-2 lead in the first 4:11 of the contest with the only Blue Bear bucket coming from Greg Henry. Livingstone did recover with an 11-2 run of its own to tie the game at 13-13 with 8:26 remaining.
Bowie State went back up by five at 18-13, but a quick 9-2 run by Livingstone gave the Blue Bears a 22-20 lead with 3:43 remaining. The Bulldogs finished the half on an 8-4 run and took a 28-26 lead into the break.
The Blue Bears came out very strong to start the second half, getting six of the first nine points and had a 32-31 lead with 18:41 on the clock. Over the next eight minutes the two teams traded buckets on both ends of the court and with 10:10 to play in the contest, the Blue Bears held a 45-44 edge. Bowie then went on a 9-0 run and grabbed a 53-45 lead with 8:54 to play.
Livingstone worked very hard over the last eight minutes of the game to continually stay within striking distance of the Bulldogs. With just over a minute remaining, the Blue Bears trailed by eight. Quintin Redfern converted an old-fashioned three-point play to bring Livingstone within 63-58.
In the final minute, the Bulldogs were pressured to convert their free-throw attempts and hit just enough to hold off the Blue Bears. Bowie State had to fight past three-pointers from Omar Ford-Bey and Mark Thomas to hold on for the 69-64 victory.
Mark Thomas led the Blue Bears with 13 points while Ethan Anderson was the only other Blue Bear in double figures with 10 points. Anderson grabbed six rebounds to lead Livingstone and was matched by Omar Ford-Bey.
Livingstone finished the game shooting 35.3 percent from the floor including 36.8 percent from three-point range. The Blue Bears continued to struggle at the charity stripe, converting only 9-of-18 attempts.
Livingstone will return to the friendly confines of New Trent Gym on Thursday for its first home game in 14 days when the Blue Bears host Chowan at 7:30 p.m.
