Seniors Jordan Benock and T.J. Bishop can now say they've beaten every team in the Mid-South Conference, as Campbellsville University took down rival Georgetown College, 71-64, Saturday for the first time since the 2006 Mid-South Conference Tournament, they took down Georgetown.
"That says a lot about Georgetown's dominance. It says a lot about how hard it is to beat them. Give our guys the credit though. I'm so happy for them and so proud of them. We're not done, but at least they can taste that huge win over a big rival," CU head coach Keith Adkins said.
Adkins left the Benock, Bishop and senior center Nestor Colmenares, with one thought as they prepared for the rivalry game. "Do you want to end your career without beating this bunch?"
The seniors responded, as Colmenares led CU with 18 points and nine rebounds, Benock led the team with three assists and Bishop scored all nine of his points in the final eight minutes of the game.
Campbellsville opened the game with an 11-4 lead, but it didn't take long for Georgetown to work the game even and take the lead, 18-16, on a fast break by Villanova transfer Casiem Drummond. It was the first of 14 lead changes in the game.
CU held Georgetown's lead to three points entering halftime, 33-30, but was getting beat on the glass at Georgetown's end of the court. Campbellsville allowed five Georgetown offensive rebounds in the final two minutes of the first half - the same length of time Happy Osborne's team took the lead.
"They had 10 offensive rebounds in the half, and I told our guys at the half, that's not good enough. We won't win if they duplicate that in the second half, but we came back out and held them to just two in the second half," Adkins said.
CU blew the rebound battle wide open in the second half, finishing the game with 41 boards to Georgetown's 27. Leon Hart led the way for CU on the offensive glass with a game-high seven offensive rebounds. Most of those offensive rebounds resulted in points, including a put-back with 15 minutes left in the game to give CU a 38-37 lead.
With 11 minutes left to play in the game, Bowling Green native Shawn Savage hit back-to-back 3-pointers to turn a 42-41 game into a seven-point lead, 48-41, and the maroon Tigers never let up.
Bishop, who has been Mr. Clutch for the Tigers through conference play, was scoreless and shooting 0-of-6 from the field through the first 32 minutes of the game. But when Georgetown cut the lead to four points, 53-49, with 8:29 to play, Bishop came alive. The Boynton Beach, Fla., native worked the lead to six with a pair of free throws, then hit a 3-pointer two minutes later to give CU its only double-figure lead of the day, 60-49.
"You don't want to deflate a kid by going up to him in the middle of a close game and say, 'I tell you what, that better have gone in,' but I wanted to. When he shot that I thought, oh my goodness, but that shows how bad he wanted to beat this bunch," Adkins said. "He kept telling me, 'Coach I'm going to make a play.' Up until that point he wasn't very good. He'd turned it over a few times and was just OK defensively and he just couldn't buy one. But he came up big and made a couple of good shots and made some free throws down the stretch. When we needed him, the big senior was there."
Hollis Giles led Georgetown with 26 points and four steals, while Drummond finished with 14 points and 11 rebounds.
The win keeps Campbellsville in a two-way tie for first place in the Mid-South, with a road trip coming up Thursday to Pikeville and a chance to take sole possession of the top spot. Tip is 8 p.m. for the men and is preceded by the women.
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