Livingstone upsets Virginia Union in CIAA Tournament Quarterfinals

Livingstone upsets Virginia Union in CIAA Tournament Quarterfinals

Only one Northern Division team remains in the field

March 3, 2011

CHARLOTTE, N.C. —Livingstone point guard Trone Jackson made two free-throws with 10.8 seconds left as the Blue Bears upset Virginia Union University, 59-58, Thursday evening at Time-Warner Arena.

The clutch free-throws preserved Livingstone’s (15-12) win in the quarterfinals of the Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association Men’s Basketball Tournament after Virginia Union had erased a 12-point deficit and led in the final minute.

Livingstone — the No. 3 seed from the Southern Division —advances to its second CIAA semifinal game in school history with the lone other appearance coming in 1998. The Blue Bears will play the winner of the quarterfinal between Fayetteville State (No. 5 South) and Winston-Salem State (No. 1 South) at 9 p.m. on Friday.

“We started out strong,” Livingstone head coach James Stinson said. “We play very hard and we persevered. A win like this shows that our athletes are not second rate.”

For the Panthers, this marks the second-straight year that they have lost in their first game of the conference tournament. This year, they represented the No. 2 seed from the North.

“It’s devastating,” said senior forward Gregory Redford, who finished with seven points and a game-high 11 rebounds.

For a while, it appeared that Livingstone would cruise to the victory, never trailing until there was 1:55 left in the game. But Jackson’s clutch conversions at the stripe made up for the team’s 7-for-13 effort from the line in the second have.

Livingstone dictated the tempo from the outset, scoring the game’s first eight points before Virginia Union’s Braxton Byerson drilled a jumper 3:09 into the game for the Panthers’ first points. Byerson would be named the game’s MVP with a game-high 21 points on 7-of 19 shooting.

LC was led by senior forward Donte Durant with 13 points and eight rebounds. Junior Greg Henry added 11 points.

The Blue Bears amassed a 13-point lead, the game’s largest, with 5:03 to go in the opening half and led by 12 at 49-37 with 13:50 remaining in the game before it withered away.

After leading 51-40 with 11:36 to go, Livingstone would not log a field goal for 10 minutes and 37 seconds, scoring just two points during the stretch on a pair of free throws.

Over that time, Virginia Union narrowed the gap. Braxton drained a three with nine minutes to go to get Union within three at 51-48. Wayne Ford banked home a jumper off the right wing with 6:25 to go to get Union within two, the closest VUU had been since trailing 12-9 6:20 into the game.

Within a basket of tying the game or taking the lead, Virginia Union came up empty on five possessions that would have either given them the chance to tie or take the lead. It wasn’t until Gregory Redford tipped in a Byerson miss that Union finally drew even with less than three minutes to go.

Byerson finally gave Union its first lead on a lay-in with 1:55 to go. After Jeffrey White laid it in to give Union a three-point lead, but Livingstone’s offense finally awakened. Darius Cox ended the drought delivered a monster slam to draw Livingstone back within 1 at 56-55. Cox then hit a jumper from the free-throw line to put Livingstone ahead for good at 57-56 lead.

VUU answered behind a Wayne Ford basket with 35 seconds left to give Union a 58-57 edge, setting the stage for Jackson. As he drove to the basket, he was fouled for a one-and-one with 10.8 seconds left. The point guard drained them both. Virginia Union had two more good looks from deep sandwiched around two more Livingstone misses at the free-throw line but came up empty.

“I explained to them that this was a one-and-done deal and you have to be prepared from the start and we weren’t,” Virginia Union head coach Willard Coker said. “We fell a little short, but I told them to hold their heads up and told them that they still had some character.”