Late Jumper Sends Livingstone Past JCSU Men, 80-79

Salisbury, N.C. (Feb. 17, 2018) – Livingstone's Cameron Burhannon hit a jumper with five seconds left to send Livingstone to a wild 80-79 win over Johnson C. Smith in a CIAA Southern Division men's basketball game on Saturday afternoon at New Trent Gym.

Burhannon's shot came after JCSU had erased a nine-point (68-59) deficit over the last eight minutes of the game.

After JCSU's Robert Davis (West Friendship, Md  provided the seventh tie of the game (49-49) after drilling a three-pointer with 14:32 remaining, Livingstone hit three three-pointers in a row to take the 61-53 lead.  LC's Ramel Belfield was responsible for two of the shots, as Roger Ray hit one in that span.

LC grabbed their biggest lead of the game when Burhannon made it 65-55 with 9:46 to go with a jumper.

JCSU then went on a 15-5 run to knot the game at 70-70, capped by a Davis three. JCSU then grabbed the 77-75 lead after two Christian Kirchman (Roanoke, Va.) free throws with 2:21 left.

Livingstone got a free throw from Burhannon to make it 77-76, but a Kirchman layup pushed the JCSU lead to 79-76 with 1:49 to play.

Burhannon then was able to bring LC to within 79-78 with a pair of free throws with 1:31 left.

JCSU then missed a jumper and Livingstone controlled the rebound. The Blue Bears then missed a layup and three-0pointer, with JCSU getting the ball with 51 seconds to play.  A missed shot by Davis enabled Livingstone one last chance, with Burhannon cashing in from the elbow at about 17 feet.

JCSU then pushed the quickly up the floor, but an off-balanced three-pointer bounced off the rim, sending Livingstone to the 80-79 win.

JCSU shot 47.9% from the field on a 23-of-48 effort while hitting 6-of-19 from long range.  JCSU also managed a 27-of-44 effort from the foul line, good for 61.4%.

Livingstone was 44.6% from the field (25-of-56) while hitting 11 three pointers.

JCSU's Davis had a game-high 28 points while Kirchman added 15 points and five rebounds.  Arthur Bennett (Powder Springs, Ga.) had 13 points and three boards while junior Roddric Ross (Forest City, N.C.) had eight points and eight rebounds in the loss.

Burhannon led all Blue Bear scorer's, hitting for 22 points while Ramel Belfield secured the double-double with 19 points and 10 rebounds.  Roger Ray had 10 points for Livingstone, who improved to 9-12 overall, 7-7 in CIAA play and 3-5 in the Southern Division.

JCSU dropped the 17-9 overall, 10-4 in league play and suffered their first Southern Divisional loss, dropping to 7-1.