"You cannot turn the ball over and create offense for St. Catharine, and we did that. We had to be ready to compete ever defensive possession, and we did that well the first half, but in the second half, we didn't have one possession where all five guys were competing on defense," CU head coach Keith Adkins said.

The Tiger defense shut down the Patriots inside the 3-point arc in the first half. After St. Catharine scored its first points of the game in the paint, CU held the Patriots scoreless from inside the arc for the next eight minutes. SCC took advantage of some Campbellsville turnovers late in the first half to score on four straight trips to the paint and take a 29-23 lead on a dunk by Justin Morris. But the Tigers settled back in.

Caleb Harris, who led CU with 19 points, converted a 3-point play to answer Morris' dunk, followed by a stop in the paint by JaVaughn Espritt that led to an Adrian Whelan 3 and then a Brett Crittenden 3 to give CU a 32-31 lead. While SCC took a short lead again on a 3 by Carr, Harris answered with a layup to tie it. Crittenden and Espritt gave CU a 37-34 halftime lead with a late free throw and layup.

The second half was a different story though, as the Patriots were unstoppable in the paint, scoring on 8-of-11 field goal tries inside the purple lane. SCC started the period on a 9-0 run and never looked back, shooting 62 percent from the field (18-29) in the final 20 minutes.

Adkins compared the second half of the game to the shutdown late on Jan. 3 in a home loss to Union University.

"You can talk about talent, you can talk about fatigue, but bottom line is we didn't play hard," Adkins said. "When you give the effort we gave in the second half on the road in the Mid-South Conference, you get the result we got."

Campbellsville (10-7) returns home Monday for a non-conference makeup game against Life University at 7 p.m. before continuing with its five-game MSC road trip Thursday at Lindsey Wilson College.
 

STAT SUMMARY

St. Catharine (77) - Keeling 16, Williams 8, Withers 11, Johnson 9, Carr 15, Lee 4, Lambert 8, Morris 2, Watson 4. Totals 30-59 11-15 77.

Tigers (63) - Smith 5, Harris 19, Savage 7, Espritt 11, Crittenden 11, Whelan 5, Bohm 5. Totals 22-58 14-21 63.

Half-time - Campbellsville 37-34.

Three-point goals - St. Catahrine 6-15 (Johnson 3), Campbellsville 5-22 (Crittenden 2).

Rebounds - St. Catharine 35, Campbellsville 32 (Espritt 12).

Assists - St. Catharine 13 (Withers 3, Johnson 3), Campbellsville 5 (Harris 2, Savage 2).

Steals - St. Catharine 5, Campbellsville 5.

Blocked shots - St. Catharine 5 (Lambert 3), Campbellsville 0.