Despite keeping the game close, the Blue Bear men's basketball team opened up the second half of their season and the new year with a 93-83 loss to the Lincoln
University Lions Saturday Afternoon at Manuel Rivero Gym.

Roger Rays led the Blue Bears with 23 points.  Lydell Elmore added 14 points while Malik Smith contributed 11 points and 12 rebounds off the bench. 

Livingstone was unable to overcome six Lincoln players scoring in double figures. The Lions were led by Deaquan Williams, who recorded his seventh double-double of
the season with 12 points and 18 rebounds. Three of Williams' teammates also narrowly missed recording a double-double.

Neither team led by more than six points throughout most of the first half with the Lions posting a six point advantage at 25-19 with 8:42
left and the Blue Bears holding a two point lead 11-9 with 16:03 left. The Blue Bears then went on a 12-6 spurt to tie the game for the seventh time, 31-31 with 4:33
left.   The Lions countered with an 11-2 run to take their biggest lead of the half at 42-33 before Livingstone's Cameron Carpenter sank a buzzer beater from just
inside the half-court line to make the score 42-36 at the half.

The Lions increased their lead to eight only to see it cut to one (53-52) with 13:03 left.  Lincoln then ran off ten straight points to take their first double-digit
lead of the game 63-52. The Blue Bears responded with a 12-3 run to again pull within two (66-64) with 9:06 left.  Another run from the Lions pushed the lead back up to nine with 80-71 at the 5:37 mark with Lincoln's Dunlap nailing a three-pointer to cap it off. Livingstone came no closer than six the rest of the way as Lincoln pulled away in the final two minutes, making eight of 12 free throws to seal the ten point win.

The Blue Bears fall to 8-5 on the season.  The Lions improve to 3-11.

The Blue Bears return to action on Monday as they travel to Ettrick,Va. to face the Trojans of Virginia State University for a 7:30 pm tip-off.