The Wright stuff for Bear women

RALEIGH—The Livingstone College women’s basketball team took advantage of 34 St. Paul’s turnovers and 15 missed free throws for a 76-53 victory Monday in the first round of the CIAATournament.

Robyn Wright paced Livingstone with 18 points, while Angela Thomas added 15 points and five assists and Erica Deas tallied 14 points and five steals to key the Livingstone defense.

The win sent the Lady Blue Bears, the No. 4 seed from the West, into today’s second-round matchup against East No. 1 Virginia State. Tip-off at the Entertainment and Sports Arena is set for 1 p.m.

“(Defense) was the key to the game,”Bears coach Andrew Mitchell said. “We wanted to come out and play aggressive defense.”

In other CIAATournament action Monday: Winston-Salem State toppled Virginia Union 75-60 and will play Elizabeth City State today at 3 p.m.; Shaw knocked off St. Augustine’s 72-48 and will meet Fayetteville State at 7 p.m.; and J.C. Smith’s women edged Bowie State 75-71 in overtime and will play N.C.Central tonight at 9.

The Livingstone men play their first game Wednesday at 7 p.m. against Elizabeth City State.

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Catawba’s basketball teams will begin defense of their South Atlantic Conference championships in the first round of the annual tournament here at Goodman Gym tonight.

The Catawba women (20-6) will meet Wingate (15-10) at 6 p.m.

The Indian men (19-7), also seeded third, will face Presbyterian (11-15) at 8.

The winners advance to the semifinal round Friday at the Catawba Valley Community Center at Hickory. The finals will be played Saturday afternoon.

The Catawba-Wingate winner will play the Presbyterian-Tusculum winner Friday at 8.

The other women’s first-round games will find top-seeded Mars Hill (21-4) meeting eighth-seeded Newberry ( 2-24) and fourth-seeded Carson-Newman (12-13) entertaining fifth-seeded Lenoir-Rhyne (18-8). Those winners will meet Friday at 4.

Tickets for the doubleheader are $6 for adults, $3 for children and $1 for college students.