Institute, WV – The Shaw University men's basketball team survived a late push from the Davis and Elkins Senators to come away with an 80-76 win in their season opener Friday evening at the Earl Lloyd Classic in Institute, WV.

Shaw starts the season 1-0 overall while Davis and Elkins falls to 0-1 on the early season.

Shaw jumped out to an early 4-0 in the first 90 seconds of play with baskets from Mike Armstrong and Rayshawn Neal. Both settled in to trade a few baskets with the Bears ahead 11-10 at the first media break. The Shaw lead grew to 18-13 before a basket from Tyler Williams put Shaw ahead 28-20 with 6:46 remaining before halftime. The lead grew to 10 with back-to-back baskets from Brandon Faison and Nakwan Kitchens at the 4:26 mark of the first half.

A Kitchens dunk led to a Senator's timeout with 3:56 left before halftime and Shaw ahead 37-25. The Shaw lead slipped to seven with two Davis and Elkins free throws before inching closer with just 45 seconds left in the half trimming the Bears lead to 40-35. One last empty possession to end the half kept the Shaw lead at five at the break.

Davis and Elkins opened the second half trimming the Shaw lead to as small as four at 44-40 before a Shaw run aided by a 5-0 run from Justus Baldwin and another dunk from Kitchens pushing the Shaw lead back up to double digits at 51-40 at the 14:53 mark. Corey Rutherford added a three-pointer off the bench to make the score 58-44 before Neal added another layup with 11:39 left in regulation.

The Senators cut the Bears lead to 65-55 with a jumper at the 8:09 mark in the second half. After trading baskets, Faison added another jumper keeping the Shaw lead at 10 with 6:26 left. A free throw from Faison made the score 73-61 in favor of the Bears with just over four minutes remaining. A quick 6-0 Senators run to cut the Shaw lead quickly to 73-67.

Davis and Elkins cut the Shaw lead to just 76-73 with a dunk with 1:46 remaining before tying the game at 76 with 1:08 remaining. Caleb Simmons gave the Bears a 78-76 lead with 36 seconds left on the clock. After a Senators timeout and turnover, Armstrong upped the Shaw lead to 80-76 sending the Bears to an opening season victory.

The Bears finished the contest shooting 53% from the field while being limited to just 3-13 shooting from beyond the arc. The Senator's outrebounded the Bears 37-29 while both teams finished with 17 turnovers each.  Faison and Kitchens led the Bears with 17 points each followed by Simmons with 16 rounding out the double-digit scorers. Simmons, Faison, and Armstrong all finished with a team-high five rebounds.

Shaw will have a quick turnaround as they face West Virginia State Saturday, November 13. Tipoff is scheduled for 4 p.m.