CIAA Basketball: Livingstone 82, J.C. Smith 65

Livingstone's Coach James Stinson works the ref from the sideline against Lincoln University. photo by Wayne Hinshaw, for the Salisbury Post

By Ricky Rogers

mlondon@salisburypost.com

The Livingstone men’s basketball team picked up a crucial divisional victory Saturday, downing the Johnson C. Smith Golden Bulls 82-65 and earning the third seed out of the Southern Division for the 2011 CIAA tournament.

Trone Jackson led the Blue Bears with 17 points off the bench accompanied by Nasir Austin who scored 15 points and had five rebounds. Greg Henry was the leading scorer among the starters with 12 points to go with his seven rebounds.

Livingstone (14-11, 9-8) will open the conference tournament on Wednesday at 7 p.m. against St. Paul’s College who is the sixth seed out of the CIAA Northern Division.

Johnson C. Smith (15-10, 11-6) jumped out to an 18-9 lead with 13:42 left in the first half, forcing Livingstone to take a timeout. The Blue Bears went on a 10-2 run and eventually too a 25-24 lead.

J.C. Smith led the Blue Bears 35-34 but Livingstone held Johnson C. Smith to only two points over the final 4:54 of the first half and took a 42-37 lead into the break.

Johnson C. Smith kept the game close to start the second half and regained a 48-47 advantage over the Blue Bears with 15:39 to play in the contest. Over the next five minutes the two rivals battled up and down the court, trading buckets and leads.

The Blue Bears led by only one at 61-60 with 10:06 remaining, and then the Livingstone defense went to work holding the Golden Bulls to only five points over the final 10 minutes of the game. The Blue Bears started with a big 10-1 run to open up a 71-61 lead with 6:21 left. Johnson C. Smith couldn’t get shots to fall over the final minutes and the Blue Bears pulled away for the big victory.

Livingstone had a solid night shooting the ball, hitting 51.7 percent of its shots from the field, 30.8 percent from three-point range and 78.3 percent from the charity stripe. After allowing the Golden Bulls to shoot 51.7 percent in the first half, the Blue Bears allowed only nine buckets in the second half.

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NOTES: The Blue Bear bench players outscored the Golden Bulls reserves 51-9 for the game. ... Livingstone won the rebounding battle 34-28.