SALISBURY Saturday was Senior Night at Livingstone, but the Blue Bears' subs were the heroes.

Livingstone's bench poured in 51 points during an 82-65 win against Johnson C. Smith at Trent Gym. Livingstone (14-11, 5-5) earned the CIAA South Division's third seed for this week's league tournament at Time Warner Cable Arena and dropped arch rival J.C. Smith (15-10, 4-6) to fourth.

"Before the game even started, coach (James Stinson) told us to come out and play 40 minutes of basketball and execute," said Livingstone reserve forward Nasir Austin, who scored 15 points with 6-for-11 shooting. "If we do that, it's easy for us to win."

That was especially true during the second half, when the Blue Bears outscored the Golden Bulls 40-28. In addition to Austin, who added five rebounds, Livingstone's leading scorer was backup guard Trone Jackson with 17 points and six assists. The Golden Bulls managed just nine points from their reserves, and Livingstone's defense handcuffed their offense during the second half, limiting J.C. Smith to 9-of-25 shooting.

"We just weren't prepared," Golden Bulls coach Steve Joyner said. "I'm concerned we're not doing something right because we lacked focus. We jumped on them real good at the beginning of the game, but we had no sustainability."

Livingstone went after CIAA Player of the Year Trevin Parks by putting bigger defenders on the perimeter to limit open looks at the basket. Parks scored 15 points with 3-for-9 shooting, but outside of Ronald Thornhill's 21 points, the Golden Bulls couldn't figure an effective solution.

"I wanted to congratulate Parks, but at the same time, if we go out and play defense, we can stop anybody," Austin said.

Livingstone took advantage of a 25-3 disparity in bench production to pull ahead 42-37 at halftime after five ties and five lead changes. Austin led the charge with nine points and Jackson eight to go along with starting forward Greg Henry's nine.

The Golden Bulls led 18-9 early, but Livingstone wouldn't buckle, reeling off an 8-2 run over the final 4 minutes, 50 seconds to pull ahead. Both teams shot well, with Livingstone's 56.7 percent (17-for-30) from the floor slightly better than J.C. Smith's 51.7 (15-for-29). Thornhill scored 12, followed by Parks' eight.