St. Augustines coach Antonio Davis approached an official seconds before the start
of the second half and made a simple request.Can
we just call it now? he asked the referee.
Davis then looked down the sideline at Livingstone coach
Andrew Mitchell and made a gesture with his arms that implied that he was posing the same
question to his counterpart.
Well take it,Mitchell responded.
Mitchells response made sense, because Eric Deas and
her Blue Bear teammates didnt have much left to prove.
Deas scored 21 first-half points to give Livingstone a
41-19 lead at the break, and the Blue Bears rolled to a 79-56 win against the Falcons on
Senior Night at New Trent Gym.
We wanted to send our seniors out the right way, and
this is a close-knit group, Mitchell said. Everybody was committed to running
the system and executing it, and that was the biggest thing.
Deas, who has scored more than 1,700 points in her four
years at Livingstone, had a big part in making sure the offense ran smoothly.
Deas hit three 3s and scored 13 points in the first 5:20 to
help the Blue Bears (7-17, 4-6) build a 19-1 lead over the Falcons (5-21, 2-8).
Livingstones 2-2-1 full-court press also gave the
Falcons all kinds of trouble. St. Augs turned the ball over on nine of its 13
possessions during that early run.
Its mainly to slow teams up, but if teams are
going to allow us to trap, well take that as well,Mitchell said.
Deas ended up hitting eight of her 11 shots from the field
in the first half, including a 5-of-7 mark from beyond the arc.
She attempted only two shots in the second half and
didnt score, but she ended her career at New Trent on a high note.
Its really time for me to step up as a
senior, said Deas, who has scored 48 points and shot 69 percent in the last two
games.I should have been stepping up all season.
Deas got help from guard Angela Thomas, who assisted on all
five of the seniors five first-half trifectas.
Thomas had seven assists in the first half to go with two
points, but she changed roles with Deas after halftime.
Thomas did get two more assists after the break, but she
made the biggest impact by scoring 13 points on 5-for-6 shooting.
I told (Erica) that she owed me, so she gave me the
ball a little more in the second half, Thomas said.
n
NOTES:The Falcons had only seven players. ... The contest
was also the home finale for Miriam Baltimore, Amy Linder and Martha Foye. All four of
Mitchells seniors started the contest.
ST. AUGUSTINES (56) Burgess 19, Bonaparte 13,
Randolph 10, Bailey 7, Atkins 5, Berry 2, Coleman.
LIVINGSTONE (79) Deas 21, Thomas 15, Wright 9,
McInnis 7, Baltimore 6, Linder 4, Foye 4, Herndon 4,
Foster 4, Jackson 3, Roberts 2, Garrison, Brown.