Ray leads Blue Bears past Bowie State in CIAA Tourney
LC to face WSSU Thursday night in Charlotte's Spectrum Center
CHARLOTTE, N.C. – CIAA Player of the Year Roger Ray tallied 22 points, nine assists and three steals as Livingstone edged Bowie State 74-70 in a CIAA Tournament men's basketball thriller at Bojangles' Coliseum on Wednesday.
The Blue Bears (13-15 overall) will take on Winston-Salem State in a quarterfinal game at the Spectrum Center on Thursday at 9 p.m. Winston-Salem State is seeded second and Livingstone is seeded sixth in the Southern Division.
Bowie State ended its season with a 16-14 overall record. The Bulldogs were the No. 3 seed in the Northern Division.
Cameron Carpenter canned two free throws with 3.2 seconds left to ice the game for the Blue Bears in a game that featured wild momentum swings. Ray scored five points, including two critical buckets, during a game-deciding 12-7 run in the final 3:23 of the contest.
The senior guard swished a jumper to put the Blue Bears ahead 64-63. He scored again to give his team a three-point lead, and the Blue Bears never trailed again.
Juwan Smith buried a deep three-pointer with 10 seconds left to keep Bowie State in striking distance. The Bulldogs trailed 72-70 before Carpenter's game-clinching free throws.
Lydell Elmore and Carpenter added 16 points and 12 points, respectively, for the Blue Bears, who shot 45.1 percent from the floor. The Blue Bears made 5 of 10 three-pointers for 50 percent.
Saiquan Jamison had 12 points and nine rebounds and Smith added 11 points for the Bulldogs, who made 40 percent of their shots. Rebounding kept the Bulldogs in the contest as they won the battle of the boards 43-31 including a 23-12 advantage on the offensive glass. That led to a 23-12 edge in second chance points.
The lead changed hands seven times in the see-saw affair. After falling behind early, the Blue Bears took a two-point halftime lead. They opened the second half with 10 straight points to build a 49-37 lead, but it evaporated quickly as the Bulldogs made their run, pulling into a 51-51 tie with 9:49 remaining.
The lead changed three times before the Blue Bears surged ahead for good.
Ray came alive late in the first half to push the Blue Bears past the Bulldogs for a 39-37 halftime lead. Eight of his 11 first-half points came in the last seven minutes - including a four-point play on a three-pointer and foul - as the Blue Bears erased a nine-point deficit.
The trio of Elmore, Carpenter and Malik Smith each scored six points in the first half for Livingstone, which connected on 46.4 percent from the floor, including 57.1 percent behind the three-point arc.
Juwan Smith and Jamison scored eight points apiece for the Bulldogs, who led all but the last minute of the first half. The Bulldogs held a working margin between four and nine points until the Blue Bears made its late first-half run.
The Bulldogs shot 38.7 percent in the first half, including 25 percent behind the three-point line.
