Final Stats
CHARLOTTE, NC – The Livingstone men's basketball team missed an opportunity to earn a double bye in the upcoming conference tournament Saturday as the Blue Bears fell 89-77 at Johnson C. Smith in their regular-season finale.
The loss, coupled with a Fayetteville State upset of the Winston-Salem State Rams, means the Blue Bears will have fifth seed out of the CIAA Southern Division. Livingstone will play Chowan University on Tuesday at Time Warner Cable Arena in Charlotte, NC. Official game times will be released by the CIAA on Sunday.
Livingstone took an early 3-2 lead over the Golden Bulls on a Josh Hodge three-pointer, but Johnson C. Smith rallied back to take a 12-7 edge with just over 15 minutes left in the first half. The Blue Bears fought back to take a 22-20 lead.
The Blue Bears held as slim 24-22 lead with 8:43 left, but Johnson C. Smith then went on a 16-4 run to take a 38-28 lead with 2:51 left in the first half. Livingstone got back within six with just over a minute to play, but a three-pointer by the Golden Bulls just before the half gave Johnson C. Smith a 43-34 lead at the break.
Livingstone got back within five points in the first three minutes of the second half, but then the inconsistency started. The Blue Bears put up two points only to give up another four to the Golden Bulls and this continued for about eight minutes. In this span, Johnson C. Smith opened a 70-51 lead with 8:22 left.
Despite the large deficit, there was still some fight left in the Blue Bears. Livingstone continued to trail by 19 with 6:38 left, but went on an 8-0 run to cut the deficit to 11 with just under five minutes remaining. Unfortunately for the Blue Bears, 11 points was as close as they got as Johnson C. Smith clamped down on defense to secure the victory.
Nasir Austin led the Blue Bears with 20 points while senior Greg Henry finished with 18 points and seven rebounds.
The Blue Bears shot 46.3 percent from the field for the game, but hit only 2-of-14 attempts from three-point range. Livingstone had to contend with a hot-shooting Golden Bull team who shot 61.4 percent for the game including 76 percent in the first half.
