IT'S ON
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Men's Bracket
57h Annual CIAA Men’s Basketball Tournament
Wednesday, February 27, 2002
Vikings Take Advantage of Blue Bears' Youth – Advance to Quarterfinals
RALEIGH, NC – Livingstone College’s starting lineup had no prior CIAA Tournament experience, and it showed.
The Blue Bears seemed to have a hard time fighting off first-time jitters as the Elizabeth City State Vikings were able to capitalize on 13 LC turnovers to vault out to a 35-28 lead at the intermission.
Tyrone Smith scored 23 points as the Vikings had to survive a late charge to upend the Blue Bears 86-78 to advance to quarterfinal action of the CIAA Tournament at the Raleigh Entertainment and Sports Arena.
Gregory Moustapha sparked his team with 6 points in the second half as he led the Vikings on a 12-4 run and a 47-32 lead at the 16:53 mark.
The Blue Bears began to show signs of life midway through half as they broke out on an 17-5 run of their own led by three-pointers by Jerome LaGrange and Moise Nash to help pull the Blue Bears to within 6, down 62-56 with 10:05 remaining.
Brandon Brooks’ went on a 5-0 run of his own as he converted
a three-point play and followed it up with a jumper just outside of the
lane to push the lead back up to 70-60.
Livingstone was able to compete all the way down to the last
second as LaGrange kept hope alive by hitting the Bears’ eighth three-pointer
of the half to cut the lead to 82-78 at the 1:21 mark. That turned
out to be the Bears’ last breath of hope as the Vikings made their free
throws down the stretch to take the 86-78 victory.
ECSU had six players score in double-figures. Jamie Rhodes dropped in 18 points and Brandon Brooks had a double-double with 11 rebounds and 11 points.
Both teams struggled from the charity stripe as the Vikings shot 64 percent and the Blue Bears shot a lowly 34 percent.
Livingstone had four players score in double-figures. Jerome LaGrange led all scorers by shooting 10-for-21 from the field for 24 points and 7 assists. Moise Nash chipped in 16 points (4-7 3PT) and Paul Michael added 12 points with 7 rebounds.
The Vikings will take on Winston-Salem State in the quarterfinals tomorrow night at 7:00 p.m.