Final Stats
SALISBURY, NC – The Livingstone women's basketball team dropped a heartbreaker Saturday evening, falling 75-74 to the St. Augustine's Falcons on senior night.
Saturday's contest was the final home game for Livingstone senior student-athletes Rashida Elbourne, Montiya Harrison and Elicia Gilliam-Washington.
Both teams got off to very slow starts Saturday evening as through the first two minutes, Livingstone led only 1-0. St. Augustine's went up 2-1 before Livingstone was able to go on a mini run to go up 6-2. The Blue Bears continued to lead at 8-5, but St. Augustine's made the first strong charge of the game, going on a 9-0 run to take a 14-8 lead with 9:41 left in the first half.
The Falcons increased their lead to as much as 10 at 20-10 before the Blue Bears started to fight back. Livingstone went on a 13-3 run to tie the game at 23-23 with 4:48 left in the second half. Livingstone's defensive pressure really made the difference for the Blue Bears in regaining a lead as Livingstone took a 26-25 edge with 3:31 left on a three-pointer by Rashida Elbourne.
Livingstone maintained its lead of the final minutes of the first half thanks to improved play down in the paint. The Blue Bears closed the half on a 5-0 run, capped off by a Kelcyn Manurs' bucket with 0.9 seconds left. She was fouled on the made shot and converted the free throw to give Livingstone a 39-30 lead at the break.
St. Augustine's came out strong to start the second half and got the Livingstone lead down to three at 43-40 with just over three minutes gone in the second half. The Blue Bears didn't falter as they were able to rebuild their lead to double-digits in only a few minutes.
Livingstone reached its largest lead of the contest of 14 points with 10:12 remaining in the game. The Blue Bears continued to lead by nine, 71-62 with just 3:32 to play, but then went cold from the field. Livingstone was without a field goal for the next 2:06 and in that time St. Augustine's cut the lead to two.
With 56 seconds to go, Kelcyn Manurs put the Blue Bears back up three after hitting 1-of-2 free throws. Only three seconds later the Falcons cut the lead to one on two free throws. Manurs turned the ball over on the ensuing Livingstone possession, which led to a Falcon bucket with 25 seconds left. After a St. Augustine's timeout, the Blue Bears were unable to even get a shot off before time expired and the Falcons came away with the 75-74 victory.
Kelcyn Manurs finished with 18 points, leading four Blue Bears in double figures. Stella Holloway added 14 points and Montiya Harrison and Rashida Elbourne each added 12 points in their final home game. Fellow senior Elicia Gilliam-Washington also chipped in seven points. Jasmine Murray led the Blue Bears with 10 rebounds.
Livingstone shot 38.7 percent from the field including 50 percent from beyond the arc. Free-throw shooting was less than stellar as the Blue Bears hit only 63.2 percent of their attempts.
The Blue Bears will finish their final two games on the road starting with Fayetteville State on Monday evening at 5:30 p.m.
