Men's Basketball

Tigers put away St. Catharine in final minutes, 77-69

Box Score

CAMPBELLSVILLE, Ky. – Campbellsville University battled through shooting woes Thursday night to pull away late with a 77-69 win over St. Catharine College in the 2014-15 Mid-South Conference opener.

 



The 19th-ranked Tigers hit only 5-of-21 3-pointers in the game, including 1-of-11 in the second half, but found its free throw rhythm late to secure its sixth-straight win.

BOX SCORE

St. Catharine led by as many as seven points, 19-12, after eight minutes of play in the first half and controlled the scoreboard for most of the first 20 minutes. CU pulled ahead and fell behind by a point here and there, but it wasn't until Rob Robinson knocked down a pair of free throws with 2:31 left in the half that Campbellsville began to flip momentum.

Damontre Harris scored the next four points, followed by a D'Von Campbell free throw to cap a 7-0 run, which put Campbellsville up five, 38-33. The Tigers carried a 38-35 lead into halftime.

Harris and Campbell led all players with 15 points and 10 rebounds each. Campbell added three assists and Harris had six blocks.

The second half played out similarly to the final eight minutes of the first half. The Patriots rallied to regain the lead and go up four, 52-48, on an Aishon White basket with 11:26 left.

But Campbellsville fought back to tie it three times in the next six minutes. Rob Robinson was the first to pull CU close during the stretch, hitting a 3 in front of the Tiger bench off a no-look pass from Campbell to pull within one, 52-51. The last tie came on a pair of second-chance Miles Rice free throws. Darius Clement followed with two charity shots to give the Tigers a 62-60 lead as part of an 8-0 run.

The game-changing moment came with 2:17 to play, when sophomore post Elliott Young set a screen and rolled to the left corner to fire up a 3. The shot missed short, yet Young attacked the basket, got the board, bucket and foul. The effort led to an emotional fist pump by CU head coach Keith Adkins and caused the Tiger bench to erupt. Young hit the free throw to give Campbellsville a seven-point lead. From that point on, Clement and Young, combined, returned to the line three more times, knocking down each shot to end the game 7-for-7 on free throws in the last two minutes.

Clement and Robinson each finished with 13 points, while Young and Rice had eight and seven, respectively.

Brandon Bobb Jones led St. Catharine with 15 points and nine boards, while White and Demetrus Richardson had 13 and 10 points, respectively.

Campbellsville (6-0, 1-0 MSC) will look to continue its win streak when it hits the road Saturday for only the second time this season. The Tigers will travel to No. 4 Benedictine College in Atchison, Kan. Tipoff is 7 p.m. EST.

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