Final Stats

SALISBURY, NC – For the second time in two weeks, the Livingstone men's basketball team took the nationally-ranked Shaw Bears to the wire, but the Blue Bears were again unable to snag a victory as Livingstone fell 71-64 Monday evening.

Shaw came out very strong to start the first half, jumping out to a 15-5 lead with 12:30 left in the first half.  Livingstone battled back on a 12-2 run to tie the game at 17-17 with 6:52 on the clock.  Both teams battled back and forth over the final five minutes of the first half, but Shaw as able to come out slightly ahead and take a 32-28 lead into the break.

Livingstone started the second half as the aggressor and tied the game less than three minutes into second half.  The Blue Bears then slowly built a lead and led by as much as seven with 12:04 remaining.

Shaw fought back and tied the game at 51-51 with 6:27 to play.  The final five minutes were a true battle with nothing being decided until the bitter end.  Shaw went back up by four, but Livingstone was able to tie the game again with 2:23 left.  Shaw was able to go back up by five with 37 seconds left and it was a lead Livingstone couldn't recover from.

Mark “AJ” Thomas led the Blue Bears with 14 points while Tyler Johnson added 12 points and Trone Jackson finished with 11 points.  Nasir Austin led the Blue Bears on the board with 10 rebounds.

Livingstone shot 39.3 percent from the field for the game.  The Blue Bears shot a solid 62.5 percent from beyond the arc in the first half, but struggled in the second half, connecting on only 1-of-6 long-range attempts.

The Blue Bears will next host a non-conference opponent in Morris College on Thursday at 7:30 p.m.