To coin an old baseball phrase: St. Catharine College is a tough out.

The Patriots, owners of one of the two loses on Campbellsville University's regular season conference record, proved to be just that in the semi-finals of the Mid-South Men's Basketball Tournament in Frankfort Saturday afternoon. But the Tigers prevailed 68-62.

"We're probably not the best team they've played all year and they're probably not the best team we've played," said coach Keith Adkins. "But nobody comes as close to playing as hard as they do. Through in talent and good coaching and they're tough."



Adkins' club's middle relief wasn't all that but but they used T.J. Bishop, Shawn Savage and Caleb
Harris combined to close the game by hitting 10 out of the last 12 free throws that sealed an uncertain future.

Trailing for 17 minutes of the second half until Bishop, Savage and Jordan Benock went for the long ball, hitting four 3s in the last four minutes.

After taking a 33-27 lead at the intermission, it looked like Campbellsville would find a littler breathing room and took an 11-point lead six minutes into the last 20 minutes. But St. Catharine would not give up and turned the Tigers over to close to within one (54-43) with 5:36 left to play.

But after that, Campbellsville outscored the Patriots 14-9.

"We weren't great decision-makers at the end of the game," admitted Adkins, whose team turned the ball over seven more times than the Patriots. " But I don't have any issue with our energy. We close with great rebounding and great free throw shooting."

The win sets up a 2 p.m. matchup Sunday afternoon against the winner of the Georgetown-Cumberlands game.

Campbellsville was led in scoring by T.J. Bishop with 23. He was joined in double figures by Nestor Colmenares with 11 and Shawn Savage with 10.  The Tigers shot 47 percent from the field (18-39), 69 percent from 3 (9-13) and 64 percent (23-36) from the free throw line. CU won the rebounding battle 34-28 and  turned the Patriots over 14 times.

Scoring

Campbellsville (68) - Bishop 23, Espritt 6, Colmenares 11, Harris 9, Savage 10, Benock 9.

St. Catharine (62) - Latham 22, Owens 6, Williams 9, Edwards 9, Peery 2, Johnson 12, Decker 2