Box Score
CHARLOTTE, NC – Junior forward Brittany Wright scored a career-high 29 points Tuesday, but the Livingstone women’s basketball team’s season came to an end as the Blue Bears fell 70-67 to the St. Paul’s Tigers in the opening round of the CIAA Tournament.
The Blue Bears finished their season 10-18 overall while St. Paul’s improved to 8-19. With the victory the Tigers advanced to play Virginia State on Thursday.
Wright, along with her 29 points also pulled down 15 rebounds, both game highs. Junior guard Montiya Harrison added 10 points. Senior guard Kayler McBride, in her final game as a Blue Bear also scored nine points.
Livingstone had a rough start to the opening 20 minutes as they fell behind quickly 8-2 and St. Paul’s was able to open a 10-point cushion with 14:55 left. The Blue Bears were able to cut the deficit down to six with 13:42 left, but St. Paul’s quickly got its lead back to double digits. With 2:26 left in the first half St. Paul’s led 34-23. Brittany Wright hit two free throws with 1:43 left to bring the score to 34-25 which turned out to be the halftime score.
At the half, Wright already had a double-double with 13 points and 13 rebounds. Unfortunately for the Blue Bears no other player had more than four points. Livingstone struggled from the three-point arc in the first half, shooting only 1-for-14 from long range.
St. Paul’s came out in the second half and quickly opened up a 17-point lead with 18:07 left. After that, the Blue Bears turned up the full-court defense, forcing the Tigers into 23 second-half turnovers. The St. Paul’s lead just kept getting smaller and smaller as the second half progressed.
The Blue Bears go their deficit down to single digits at 34-43 with 14:20 to play and they weren’t done yet. With 11:28 to go in the game the Blue Bears trailed by only six at 50-44. After a brief scoring spurt by the Tigers the Blue Bears got back to their pressure defense.
Livingstone trailed by 10 with 8:40 to play, but what followed was a 10-0 run by the Blue Bears that tied the game at 54-54 with just over seven minutes to play in the contest. Despite the Livingstone run, their was no give-up in the St. Paul’s team. The Tigers came back out, retaking a four-point edge at 58-54 with 6:37 to play.
The Blue Bears continued to trail by four at 60-56 with 5:42 left, but were able to go on a 6-0 run, which allowed them to take their first lead of the game at 62-60 with 4:18 left. Scoring for both teams slowed in the final five minutes and Livingstone found itself down three with 2:14 to play.
Montiya Harrison got the Blue Bears back within one with 1:59 left, but another Tiger bucket gave them the three-point lead back. With 47 seconds left on the clock and the Blue Bears still down by three, Rashida Elbourne was fouled while taking a three-point shot. Elbourne converted all three free throws and the game was again tied at 67-67.
In the final 30 seconds of the game the Tigers had opportunities to put the game out of reach from the free-throw line, but were unable to do so. Livingstone trailed by three points after St. Paul’s hit one of two free throws with 10 seconds left. The Blue Bears brought the ball up the court and Elbourne found herself at the top of the arc and put up a shot. The ball bounced off the back of the rim as the horn sounded, ending the Blue Bears’ season.
“I was real proud of their efforts tonight,” head coach Angelyne Brown said. “Our press gave us a chance to get back into the game. We made the stops we needed to make on the defensive end, but could finish the shots we needed to on offensive side.”
Livingstone shot 32.1 percent from the field for the game including 42.1 percent in the second half. St. Paul’s shot 42 percent from the game including 50 percent in the second half. There was a big discrepancy in the foul count and free throws as Livingstone was whistled for nine more fouls than the Tigers and St. Paul’s shot 14 more free throws than the Blue Bears. Livingstone dominated the paint 38-26, scored eight more points than the Tigers off turnovers and the Livingstone bench players outscored the St. Paul’s reserves 41-10.
Livingstone will now look towards next year as they are losing only two players, Kayler McBride and Samantha Joseph.