Big brother did most of the watching Saturday night at New Trent Gym.
In a matchup that pitted sibling coaches Buck and Steve Joyner, Livingstone’s Buck got to watch J.C. Smith’s Steve celebrate a 92-74 CIAA men’s basketball victory.
“The game means a little more when you go against your brother,” Buck Joyner said after the Stone (2-12 overall) dropped to 1-5 in league play. “We’ve been competitors all of our lives, even as kids. When I go against him, I do take it personally. But it’s all in love and if I can’t make it to the championship, I hope he does.”
J.C. Smith (13-2/6-0 CIAA) moved a step closer by shooting 52 percent from the field in the second half and erased a 12-point deficit to beat the Blue Bears for the third straight time.
“They are a good team,” said Livingstone senior Rodney Gidney. “But look at us. When we’re on top of our game, we’re as good as any team in the country.”
Those are big words from Livingstone’s big man. And while the 6-7 forward didn’t quite back them up — he had a team-high 20 points but made no baskets in the second half — he did provide a sound explanation.
“In the first half we were running our system, playing a good inside-out/outside-in game as a unit,” he said. “In the second half we lapsed off and couldn’t buy a bucket.”
Livingstone gave the admission impossible crowd plenty to cheer about in the first 20 minutes. Shawn Wiseman hit a pair of 3-pointers in the first seven minutes, helping the Bears race to a 19-10 lead.
Then with 6:24 left in the half Wiseman made another long-distance connection, this one giving the hosts a must-be-a-misprint 32-20 advantage.
“I believe we had them rattled,” said teammate Willie Rouse, who contributed 11 points, six steals and three assists. “They had to call timeout to talk things over.”
Whatever Steve Joyner told his team, it must have been the phrase that pays because the Golden Bulls responded with a ferocious charge. Led by 6-5 forward Wylie Petty — who scored 14 points in the next four-and-a-half minutes — J.C. Smith stormed to a 44-42 halftime lead.
“We made him look good,” said Rouse. “We had poor rotation on defense and he’s a good enough player to make you pay if you don’t keep your eye on him.”
The visitors were out-of-sight in the second half. They reeled off 16 straight points, held Livingstone scoreless for more than five minutes and mounted a 65-46 lead with 13:32 remaining.
J.C. SMITH (92) — Petty 26, Shingler 23, Sims 14, Wade 10, Benjamin 8, Young 4, Woods 2, Hinton 2, Joyner 1, Foreman 1, Avery 1.
LIVINGSTONE (74) — Gidney 20, Anders 15, Rouse 11, Payne 11, Wiseman 9, Moses 3, Wright 3, Henry 2, Nash, Lynch, Scarborough, Baker.
Johnson C. Smith 44 48 — 92
Livingstone 42 32 — 74
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