Staff report

GREENVILLE, S.C. — The stat sheet didn’t look impressive for Livingstone’s men’s basketball team, but the Blue Bears posted a gritty win on Monday.

Livingstone topped Lane College 69-63 in the HBCU MLK Unity Day Invitational played in downtown Greenville’s Bon Secours Wellness Arena.

The 228 fans in the building watched a bumpy ride with plenty of missed shots and turnovers, but the Blue Bears (7-8) did enough to prevail against Lane, a school in western Tennessee.

Livingstone had its usual scoring by committee. Pharoah Lassiter led the way with 10 points. Ten Blue Bears scored.

Darell Johnson had 16 for the Lane Dragons (6-9).

Livingstone shot 41.7 percent from the field, with only three made 3-pointers and committed 24 turnovers. The Blue Bears were able to compensate with their work on the boards. They had 53 rebounds, including 21 on the offensive end.

Those offensive boards provided pivotal buckets.

Livingstone led 32-28 at the half, but Lane got back even midway through the second half at 47-all.

Detionne Leach scored off an offensive rebound to put the Blue Bears ahead to stay with 9:11 left. Shortly after Leach scored, Lassiter missed a 3-point attempt, but got his own rebound and scored in the paint for 51-47.

Livingstone never pulled away but was able to hold the lead the rest of the way.

Livingstone will play Claflin on Wednesday in Orangeburg, S.C.

Livingstone  32    37   — 69

Lane               28     35   — 63

LIVINGSTONE — Lassiter 10, Montaque 9, P. Tako 9, Niper 7, Leach 7, Leak 6, Tiller 6, Herd 6, Broderick 6, Williams 3.