By: Dorian Edwards
 
Salisbury, NC- The Lady Blue Bears (2-2) lost a nail biter to the Lady Indians (1-2) 68-66 Tuesday night at Livingstone College.  Livingstone College's Cierra York scored a team high 19 points and grabbed 10 rebounds (nine defensive) over the Lady Indians.
 
The first half belonged to the Lady Blue Bears who were ahead much of the game and led by as many as seven points.  Despite being outscored in the paint (18-10) along with 15 offensive turnovers, Livingstone maintained a four point lead heading into the half.  The Lady Blue Bears shot 40 percent from the field, 23percent from behind the arc and 67percent from the charity stripe.  Their scoring leader in the first half was Tiffany Evans, a senior from Durham, NC who accounted for 10 points.  Following Evans was Cierra York, a sophomore from Winston-Salem, NC who added seven first half points while shooting 50 percent from the field.
 
The second half was more of an evenly matched battle as Livingstone and Catawba battled each other through six ties and seven lead changes in the subsequent 20 minutes.  Down 66-64, the Lady Blue Bear defense stepped up when needed and forced a missed shot by Catawba with Cierra York recording the rebound.  Time out was called with 22 seconds left.  Livingstone in-bounded the ball and put the game in the hands of Senior Guard Kelcyn Manurs who dribbled past a Catawba defender to the basket for a contested lay-up, and sent the ball off of the backboard into the basket with nine seconds left.  On the ensuing possession, Catawba dribbled the ball across half court and called timeout with six seconds left.  After the timeout, Catawba was able to answer back with a contested layup with 1.6 seconds remaining to steal the victory.
 
Livingstone shot 52 percent from the field in the second half, 30 percent from the three point line and 40 percent from the free throw line.  Livingstone was paced by Tyesha Tharpe and Tiffany Evans who finished with 16 and 14 points, respectively.  Tharpe also finished the game with 80 percentage shooting, going 8- for-10 in field goals.
 
The next contest for the Lady Blue Bears will be on November 23, 2012 in Frankfurt, Kentucky as they participate in the Kentucky State University Classic.  Tipoff is scheduled for 1:00 p.m.