Good news came in bunches of three for the Livingstone women’s basketball team Saturday night. And they came just in time.
The Lady Blue Bears made a season-high 11 three-point baskets — seven of them by freshman guard Alycia Garrison — in their 85-62 CIAA victory over visiting Shaw.
“It’s not the way we’ve always done things,” coach Andrew Mitchell said after Livingstone (13-4, 6-3 league) collected its third win in four games. “But tonight we just let it fly. It’s good to discover another way to win.”
After spending the first half of the season mining for an outside shooter to complement junior Erica Deas, the Blue Bears discovered gold in Garrison. The 5-foot-7 Roanoke, Va. native missed the first eight games of the year with a hip injury suffered during cross-country season. Before yesterday she had attempted only eight 3-pointers and made three.
“Coach told us if they leave us open for a second, go ahead and take the shot,” Garrison said after shooting 7-for-10 from beyond the arc. “I felt good about my shot selection. Usually if I don’t hit anything in the warm-ups, I’m going to be hot in the game. And that’s exactly what happened.”
Garrison made it happen midway through the second half, when Livingstone scored 17 straight points and blew the game open. She came off the bench and hit off-balance 3’s, fadeaway 3’s, two-girls-in-her-face 3’s as the Blue Bears mounted a 66-36 advantage.
“She’s a freshman and she’s not the greatest defensive player,” said Mitchell. “So I told her, ‘If you want to play, you’ve got to come in and make some shots against these zones.’ Her outside shooting is the thing that impressed us when we recruited her.”
SHAW (62) — McPhaul 20, Rojas 12, Conner 10, Shipman 8, Webster 8, Collins 4.
LIVINGSTONE (85) — Garrison 21, Deas 20, Tarrance 9, Sanders 7, Wright 6, Linder 6, Foye 4, Jackson 4, S.Brown 4, D.Brown 2, Thomas 2, Marsh, Baltimore, McInnis.
Shaw 28 34 — 62
Livingstone 39 46 — 85
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