Box Score
SALISBURY, NC – The Livingstone men's basketball team fell in overtime to the Newport News Apprentice School 86-84, Sunday afternoon inside Trent Gymnasium.
After falling to Johnson C. Smith Saturday afternoon, The Apprentice School came out strong to start the first half against the Blue Bears. After Livingstone took the first two points of the contest, The Apprentice School went on a 6-0 run to grab a 6-2 lead. The Blue Bears regained the lead, briefly with 14:29 left, but The Apprentice School regained a six-point edge with 10:53 to play in the first half, it's largest lead of the opening stanza.
Livingstone trailed by five with 7:27 left, but went on a 7-0 run to take a 26-24 advantage with 5:24 remaining. The Apprentice School led by one with 2:57 on the clock, but another run by the Blue Bears gave them a four-point lead with 1:24 left. The Apprentice School knocked down a three-pointer with just over a minute left to get within one at 36-35, which was the halftime score.
To start the second half, The Apprentice School quickly jumped on the Blue Bears and regained a slim lead. Livingstone regained the lead with 12:44 left in the second half, but by the slimmest of margins. The Apprentice School took the lead back with just over 10 minutes to play and opened up a six-point edge with 6:33 remaining.
The Blue Bears tied the game with 4:41 left at 61-61 and then took a 64-63 lead with 3:45 on the clock. Over the final four minutes of the second half the two teams battled, but Livingstone was always able to keep a slim lead. With 10 seconds left, Trone Jackson converted one of two free throws to put the Blue Bears up by two. The Apprentice School drove the ball down the court and tied the game on a layup with four seconds left. Livingstone turned the ball over with 0.7 seconds left on the ensuing inbounds pass, but the Apprentice School couldn't get a shot off and the game headed to overtime.
In the extra period, the Blue Bears struck first, grabbing a two-point lead only seven seconds in. The Apprentice School held a four-point edge with 2:31 left, but Livingstone went on a 5-0 run and grabbed its own one-point edge with 2:07 left in overtime. In the final minute, Apprentice had opportunities to put the game out of reach at the free throw line, but couldn't covert. Livingstone trailed by two with eight seconds left. Jackson dribbled the ball up the court, but ran into two Apprentice defenders as he passed the three-point arc and lost the ball as time expired.
The Blue Bears shot 39.4 percent from the floor, but only 16 percent from three-point range. The Apprentice School shot 45.5 percent from the field including 42.9 percent from beyond the arc. The free-throw line wasn't charitable to either team as Livingstone shot 72.7 percent while The Apprentice School shot 52.6 percent. Livingstone won the rebounding battled 48-46.
With the loss the Blue Bears fell to 4-2 on the season while The Apprentice School improved to 7-6.
Livingstone will return to the court in the new year on January 6 when it travels to Elizabeth City State University to open conference play.
