[Raleigh, NC] -  Shaw fought off a late Saint Augustine's charge, holding on for a 70-62 win over their cross-town rivals in a packed and raucous C. C. Spaulding Gymnasium.  The win is the Bears' 11th straight.

Shaw built leads of eight points or more numerous times throughout the second half, but the Falcons would surge back, cutting the lead to as few as two. 

"I figured it would be a dog fight," said Shaw head coach Cleo Hill, Jr.  "At this level, this rivalry is as big as it gets, so you throw out the records and the matchups.  We're showing that we can win war games.  Although we haven't always played well, we're getting the wins."

The 23rd ranked Shaw squad improves to 15-2 on the season, 7-0 in the CIAA and 1-0 in the Southern Division of the conference.  Saint Augustine's drops to 10-7, 5-2 in the CIAA and 0-1 in the South.

The Bears struggled offensively in the first half, only hitting 44.4 percent, but came out in the second and found their footing after giving up the lead early.  Shaw would hit 68.2 percent from the floor in the second half.

Hill said that at halftime his message was simple:  "We have got to play faster.  When we play in transition, we play well.  We needed to spend more time in the painted area - either getting rebounds, hitting the high or low post, or just driving the lane.  Saint Augustine's wasn't big enough to force us to shoot three pointers."

Shaw scored 44 points in the paint - 26 in the second half alone.  They held the Falcons to only 10 points in the paint and to only 33.9 percent shooting on the game.

Hill, who has complained about his team's lack of defense this season, changed his tone today.  "I'm backing off a bit.  We held them to only 34 percent shooting.  It was a good defensive game for us."

But, when asked what the team would work on before their game on Thursday, Hill said," Defense.  We're going to look at a couple of things.  We're going to look at each of their (Saint Augustine's) 11 three pointers and each of their 16 offensive rebounds."

The Bears fell behind early, not scoring their first points until Saint Augustine's built a 5-0 lead.  When Chris Rhodes hit a three for the Falcons, he extended their lead to seven.  Junius Chaney then hit a layup for the Bears, beginning an eight-point run that gave Shaw their first lead of the game.

With the score tied at 19, Derrick Hunter hit two free throws that started another eight-point run, building a 27-19 lead with 3:45 left in the half.  The Falcons closed out the half with a five-point run, cutting the Shaw lead to 32-29 at the break.

Jeremy Banks opened the scoring in the second; his three tying the game at 32-all.  Jonathan Crawley's jumper 40 seconds later gave the Falcons a two-point lead.  It would be the last lead they held.

Karron Johnson tied the score with a layup, then hit another bucket in the paint to give the Bears a lead.  Over the next seven minutes, the Bears built a nine-point lead.  Malik Alvin's fast break layup made the score 49-40 in favor of Shaw.

The two teams would play evenly for much of the half.  With 3:51 left in the second, Alvin hit a pair of free throws to give the Bears a 63-55 lead. 

Saint Augustine's would score the next six points, trimming the Shaw lead to two with 2:09 left in the game.  With 1:41 left, Chaney hit a layup off a pass from Alvin.  Jonathan Crawley hit a free throw to trim the Shaw lead to three.  Alvin and Chaney finished out the scoring - Alvin with a three and Chaney with another fast break layup - to give the Bears the 70-62 win.

Chaney and Alvin each had 19 points to lead all scoring.  Chaney coupled his with ten rebounds for a double-double.  Nine of ten Bears that saw action scored.  Tony Smith led the Bears with six assists.

David Brown led Saint Augustine's with 11 points.  No other Falcon had more than nine, but ten scored and seven had five points or more.  Jon Kindred and Tyquan Stroman had six rebounds and Brown had eight assists to pace Saint Aug.

The Bears return to action Thursday night when they host Livingstone in a 7:30 contest.  Game is at C. C. Spaulding Gymnasium on the Shaw campus.