SALISBURY, N.C. - The Shaw University women's basketball team downed Livingstone 96-71 Saturday evening in their first divisional matchup of the season, giving head coach Jacques Curtis his 300th win at the helm of the Lady Bears' program. 

Curtis, who has led the Lady Bears to an 11-6 mark (5-2 in the CIAA) in his 14th season, has collected 300 wins against only 125 losses (.706 winning percentage).   The Lady Blue Bears fall to 9-8, 4-3 in conference.

The game was anything but textbook, with the two teams combining for 42 turnovers (Shaw with 22), and shooting a total of 54 free throw shots (35 for Shaw). 

Shaw had the hotter shooting hand, hitting 30 of 65 shots (46.2 percent) versus a 25-for-71 performance from Livingstone (35.2 percent.  Livingstone took 23 shots from beyond the arc, hitting ten, while the Lady Bears attempted seven, hitting two.

The Lady Bears dominated the boards, hauling in 54 rebounds to  only 33 for the Lady Blue Bears.

Shaw built a lead in the first half on the back of stellar free throw shooting.  Shaw hit 18 of 20 from the line, while Livingstone was perfect, but shot only four from the charity stripe.  The Lady Bears also held the advantage from the floor, hitting 53.6 percent of their shots, but putting up only 28 shots.  Livingstone was 15 of 39 (38.5 percent). 

While free throws gave Shaw the lead, threes kept Livingstone in the game.  In the first half alone, the Lady Blue Bears launched 14 from beyond the arc, hitting nine.

Livingstone jumped to an early lead, leading 10-4 in the opening minutes of the game.  Shaw, though, battled back quickly, outscoring Livingstone 9-2 in the ensuing three minutes to take a 13-12 lead.   The Lady Blue Bears used threes to stay close, but with Livingstone leading 18-17, the Lady Bears scored six straight to take a 23-18 lead with 11:20 left in the first.

Shaw slowly extended the lead, and with 5:21 left in the first, Kamiya Burwell found Diamond Mitchell on the perimeter.  Mitchell sank the long three to give Shaw a 42-33 lead. 

Three minutes later, Shaw would claim their only double-digit lead of the first half when Verdine Warner hit a layup to give the Lady Bears a 46-36 lead.  Livingstone closed out the half on a 5-2 run, giving Shaw a 48-41 lead at the half.

Early in the second half, three Livingstone turnovers led to three Shaw fastbreak layups as Shaw built their lead to 13 with 17:40 left in the game. 

Livingstone would trim that lead to eight with 16:16 left, but Shaw scored four straight to take the lead back to double digits.   The lead would hover at the ten-point mark for four minutes, when Cierra York hit a free throw, missed the second, but got the rebound and the put back to trim the Shaw lead to eight with 11:57 to go.

Livingstone would get the lead under ten two more times in the next two minutes, but twice Shaw answered to build a 12-point advantage.  With 7:08 left in the game, Brittany Henry rebounded a missed three pointer and put back the layup to give Shaw an 80-65 lead.  That bucket was part of a six-point run that gave Shaw its largest lead of the game to that point -- 17 points -- with 6:44 left.

The Lady Bears would stretch that lead to 20 on a pair of free throws from Mitchell at the four minute mark. Shaw closed out the contest on an 10-3 run to give them the 96-71 win.

Warner finished with a double-double of 23 points and 18 rebounds -- ten on the offensive glass alone.  Mitchell led both teams in scoring with 28.  Jacks had 15 and Micah Brooks finished with ten.  Burwell led the Lady Bears with five assists.

Four Lady Blue Bears finished with double digits:  Tiffany Evans with 16, Ashley Walker with 14, Sophie Lepzem 12 and York with 11.  Lepzem had eight rebounds and York five assists to lead Livingstone.

Saturday's game closed out Shaw's four-game road trip, where they went 3-1.  The Lady Bears return home Wednesday, January 22 to host Winston-Salem State in a CIAA divisional matchup at 6:00 p.m. at Shaw's C.C. Spaulding Gymnasium.