Mark Thomas’ CIAA tournament debut turned into a point-a-minute bonanza for Livingstone. Thomas, a backup guard, scored 28 points in as many minutes in the Blue Bears’ 67-52 first-round win against Chowan Tuesday at Time Warner Cable Arena. Livingstone (10-16), the South Division fifth seed, took advantage of Thomas’ outburst, connecting on 59.1 percent (13-of-22) of its second-half shots to finish the game at 48 percent. The Blue Bears play North Division No. 4 seed Virginia State today at 7 p.m. “I’m just glad to be here,” said Thomas, a sophomore who transferred from Delta (Mich.) College. “I’m just happy with the way things went.” Things went very well for Livingstone with Thomas dazzling Chowan (8-21) with 11-of-15 shooting, including 5-of-7 from three-point range. Once the Blue Bears gained the upper hand, they continued to expanded their advantage, building a double-digit lead in the second half. Guard Trone Jackson and forward Greg Henry, balanced the attack with 15 and 11 points respectively. “I think we started out very slow, but that’s indicative of some of the things we’ve started in certain tournament games,” Livingstone coach James Stinson said. “We brought it on with the experience we have with Trone and Henry and then Mark Thomas giving us a spark. That helped us.” Kyree Bethel and Ricky Lamb scored 13 points each for Chowan, the North’s No. 6 seed, but the Hawks couldn’t slow Livingstone’s pace. The Blue Bears rattled off a 15-4 run over the first 6 minutes, 21 seconds of the second half for 45-25 lead that all but sealed the game. Livingstone missed 12 of its first 13 shots to fall behind early 7-2 but warmed up with an 11-0 run to take the lead, one it would never relinquish. Thomas, who scored 11 points on 4-of-7 shooting in the first half, sparked the Blue Bears’ attack, which resulted in a 30-22 advantage at the break. Livingstone forced 10 turnovers in the first half.