Lydell Elmore and Roger Ray combined for 45 points but Livingstone's men's basketball fell to Elizabeth City State 87-79 in a cross division contest in the R.L. Vaughan Center Thursday night (Jan 9).

LC opened the game with a 15-5 run to take an early lead in a contest that saw the Blue Bears extend their lead to 19 late in the first half.

Livingstone canned 19 of 29 shots (66%) to take a 46-36 lead at halftime.

But there are two halves to a basketball game.  ECSU shot 78% from the field including 5 of 9 three-point attempts to overcome the Livingstone advantage.  The Vikings outscored LC 61-34 to overcome the deficit and push themselves to victory.

ECSU took its first lead of the game midway through the second half when Marvin Troutman III sanka a three-pointer for a 62-60 Viking lead.

LC cut the deficit to 5 points on a Malik Smith layup with 2:10 remaining but ECSU pulled away with a 7-4 run to secure the win.

The loss drops Livingstone to 8-7 overall and 4-4 in conference play.

Elizabeth City State improves to 9-5, 2-3 in the CIAA.

Livingstone returns to action when they travel to Raleigh, N.C. to face Saint Augustine's University on Monday January 13 and Shaw University on Wednesday January 15.

Livingstone's next home game will be Saturday afternoon January 18 when they host Johnson C. Smith.  Tipoff is set for 4:00 p.m.