Box Score CAMPBELLSVILLE, Ky. -- For the second time this week, Campbellsville University men's basketball nearly turned a double-figure deficit into a victory, but shooting miscues handed the Tigers their second straight loss at home, 87-76. Pikeville College held off a second-half Tiger come back to win the statewide televised Mid-South Conference game Thursday on the Wazoo Sports Network.
With the loss the Tigers slide out of a possible four-way tie for second-place in the conference standings and sit tied in sixth with Pikeville at 3-2 against conference foes.
The Tigers held the Bears close in the first five minutes, but Pikeville came out strong early and the Tigers were unable to overcome mistakes en route to a 44-29 Pikeville lead at the half. CU could not buy a basket from long range in the first half, connecting on 1-of-6 3-point tries and shot only 31.3 percent from the field as a whole to start the game.
JaVaughn Espritt, who struggled offensively Monday night, led all scorers in the opening 20 minutes. The California native scored 10 of the Tigers first-half points to lead all scorers and finished with 17 points, seven rebounds.
"In the first half, we had a severe lack of toughness, and teams typically in the Mid-South Conference that aren't very tough, aren't successful," CU head coach Keith Adkins said. "The effort coming out of the half was good, but you don't win on effort alone. You've got to have some execution and therefore the second half was marred by mistakes -- missed layups, missed two-footers, missed free throws and missed defensive assignments. There's a million ways you can define a mistake, and we found a lot of them tonight."
Campbellsville broke out of the half on fire though, shooting 70 percent on its first 10 shots, including 3-of-6 shooting from long range.
The Tigers cut the Bears' lead to five, 52-47, and later three, 62-59, with six minutes remaining, but Pikeville responded with nine unanswered points. Quickly the Bears were up back up by double figures and the Tigers began to foul. In the final two minutes, Pikeville was 12-of-14 from the charity stripe to move into second place in the MSC.
Vance Cooksey, who led all scorers with the only double-double of the night, 26 points and 11 rebounds, also led at the free throw line, connecting on 7-of-11 tries. Justin Hicks followed with 13 points, while Chris Donald and Andre Thornton each had 12 points off the bench. Trevor Setty had 10.
Shawn Savage had 18 to lead Campbellsville's offense, scoring 16 points in the second half. Caleb Harris and Reggie Smith were the other Tigers in double-figures with 12 and 10 points, respectively.
Campbellsville (9-6, 3-2 MSC) returns to action Saturday at 4 p.m. when the University of Virginia's College at Wise comes to town. Wise (7-7, 1-4 MSC) fell on the road Thursday at St. Catharine College, 94-81.
