CHARLOTTE – For the first 9 minutes of the game, the Livingstone Blue Bears had to wonder whether something was wrong with the basket. They made just one bucket in 13 shot attempts, many of them good looks that would just not go down. Then Mark Thomas hit the floor, and everything changed.

Thomas paced Livingstone with a career-high 28 points, hitting 11 of 15 shots from the field – including 5 of 7 from 3-point range – to rescue Livingstone from its early shooting doldrums and push the Blue Bears to an emphatic 67-52 victory over Chowan on Tuesday night in the 67th CIAA Tournament at TimeWarner Cable Arena.

Thomas, a reserve guard, buried three 3-pointers and added a nifty runner to score 11 points in a span of just 4 minutes, sparking the Blue Bears (10-16) to a 19-3 run and a 21-10 lead with 5:54 to go in the first half. Livingstone made 8 of its 11 shots in the spurt, and threatened to put the game away.

Livingstone, which finished the game shooting 48 percent from the field – the Blue Bears shot 62 percent after the rough start -- advances to play Northern Division No. 4 seed Virginia State at 7 p.m. on Wednesday.

“We started out very slow, but I think the experience on this team enabled us to weather that start, and then Mark gave us a huge spark,” said Livingstone coach James Stinson Jr.

The sixth-seeded Hawks (8-21) put together a 7-0 run later in the opening period to trim the deficit back down to four, but Southern Division No. 5 seed Livingstone answered with six quick points in just over a minute, and entered the break up 30-22.

Chowan opened the second half with a 3-pointer from Lee Branscome to get within five, but Thomas tickled the nets again, hitting two more 3s to spark a 10-0 run to give the Blue Bears their largest lead to that point, 40-25.

Thomas even added three the old fashioned way, converting a traditional three-point play after being fouled on a layup, pushing the stretch to 15 straight points and a 45-25 edge. He scored nine points in the run.

Still, the Hawks didn't go away quietly. Rickey Lamb buried two 3s around a foul shot to spark an 11-2 run, bringing Chowan within 11, 47-36, with 9:58 remaining.

But even that spurt would be turned away, and it was done by – who else? – Thomas. He tied his career-high with a steal and a breakaway one-handed jam, capping a 7-0 run after scoring back-to-back baskets for a 59-40 Livingstone lead with 5:55 to go.

Trone Jackson added 15 points while Greg Henry had 11 for the Blue Bears.

Chowan was led by Kyree Bethel's 13 points, 11 of which were scored in the first half. Lamb added 13  points and nine rebounds.