Campbellsville University senior
Nestor Colmenares played like the Mid-South Conference Player of the Year Sunday, scoring a career high 38 points. However, he was unable to overpower tenth-ranked Georgetown College in a 64-61 Mid-South Conference Championship loss at the Frankfort (Ky.) Convention Center.
"Nestor carried us about as far as he could," CU head coach Keith Adkins said. "We asked too much of him today. The bottom line is we didn't get a lot of offensive support other than him. A lot of credit goes to Georgetown College. They defended everyone else well."
No other CU player scored in double-figures, with Brett Crittenden being the closest with eight points off Campbellsville's only two 3-pointers and a pair of free throws.
Campbellsville's poor 3-point shooting (2-of-17) remained absent in the game's final seconds, when Shawn Savage threw up an off-balanced, desperation 3-pointer that fell short with two seconds left. Crittenden rolled out with the rebound but was unable to get a clean look as time expired.
"We took one of the worst shots I've ever seen down three," Adkins said. "There weren't a lot of guys out there that wanted the basketball. You've got to have someone to take control and say, 'I want this last shot.' We didn't have that … We got beat by a really good basketball team. It's a team that's obviously as good or better as any team that's going to be in Kansas City."
Colmenares scored his 38th and final point with two minutes left to tie the game, 59-59. It was the first tie since the game was knotted 7-7. A missed free throw by the big guy from Venezuela could have given CU its first lead since leading 14-13.
Georgetown went on to hit 5-of-8 free throws in the final minutes to seal the win, including two late by Hollis Giles with 34 seconds left. Giles finished with 16 points, behind Vic Moses who passed the 1,000 point mark for his career with 19 points and also grabbed 13 rebounds.
The orange and black Tigers led by 10 points twice in the first half, 29-19 and 31-21, before Campbellsville cut it to five, 31-25, at the break.
In addition to Colmenares, Campbellsville had three other players play more than 30 minutes in the game, but they combined for only to 11 points to aid Colmenares.
The Tigers' lowest scorer to play at least 15 minutes in the game was senior point guard T.J. Bishop, who lit up St. Catharine College for 23 points in the semifinal Saturday. He finished with one point on a technical free throw in the first half and was 0-of-6 from 3-point range.
"I thought the fatigue factor was a big part of it with T.J. Bishop having to play that many minutes that many days in a row," Adkins said. "T.J. never got into it today. And that's understandable … The good thing is he has the national tournament to make up for it and do something about it. And knowing that young man, he will do that. He will step up and do something big out there."
Colmenares' 30-point game was the first for the CU men's program in 42 games.
The Georgetown win ended a 10-game win streak for CU and extended Georgetown's streak to nine games. It was only CU's second MSC Tournament final after winning it all in 2005-06.
CU (26-7) awaits to find out its seeding for the NAIA National Tournament, March 17-23 in Kansas City, Mo. The field of 32 teams will be announced Tuesday on the NAIA Web site, while the bracket will be announced live Wednesday, March 10 at 4:30 p.m. EST on CollegeFanz.com.
Comcast cable channel 10 in Campbellsville will air the CollegeFanz bracket announcement live via campus station WLCU-TV4.
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