CAMPBELLSVILLE, Ky. — The Campbellsville University men's basketball team turned a few heads today with its fifth win over a NAIA Top 25 opponent. The 19th ranked Tigers (8-1, 3-0 MSC) took down No. 2 University of Pikeville (6-1, 2-1 MSC) in style, giving the Bears their first lost, 99-78.

"We usually don't play like we just did," said head coach Keith Adkins. "We ran a lot of open sets and drove to the basket drawing fouls. We normally like to play set offense and run our system. But Pikeville played their game, opening up the floor running and gunning. With our offense, we were able to break down their defense and flip their game on them today. That was the difference."

BOX SCORE

Eric Gaines and Miles Rice led the charge in the first half and gave Campbellsville a lot of momentum throughout the game. Gaines finished with a game and season high 22 points on 11-of-14 shooting. His ability to drive to the basket gave Adkins and his staff the luxury of playing a game similar to Pikeville.

D'Von Campbell was also a force on the dribble drive motion offense. Campbell finished with 20 points but nine of those came from the free throw line. Campbellsville finished shooting 53.6 percent (47-for-69) and held Pikeville to 33.8 percent (26-for-74).

"We were starting to get the drives and put pressure on the defense. D'Von and Eric got to the free throw line off the dribble and really played well. When we can get into the lane and get high percentage shots, I will like our chances."

The Tigers and Bears came storming out of the gates. Miles Rice ignited the packed Powell Athletic Center with one of his three 3-pointers and gave CU its first lead. After a UPIKE basket, Gaines joined his teammate and the duo started to take over.

Gaines put CU back ahead 7-6 and picked the pocket of Jackson Hussey leading to another deuce. Damontre Harris used a tip-pass to Gaines off another steal to put CU up 11-6. Harris then came down and swatted two consecutive Pikeville shots with a Rice triple in between.

"The difference is we have a 6-foot-10 game changer in the paint and they don't. I think that was one of our best defensive games all season. But it is easy when we have Damontre in the middle of the paint when we play high pressure defense."

Gaines and Rice combined for 16 of the 34 points with 11 minutes remaining and finished the first half with 26 of the 47 points for CU.

"Speaking of Miles that did nothing but give him confidence," said Adkins. "He has not shot it well lately but banged a couple early. If he can do that and Eric plays the way he did we will be tough."

"Eric is starting to become the old Eric again. He started a little late with his injury and a lot of people expected him to come out and be his old self right from the start. He is starting to finally get in his groove and get his legs under him. We saw that the other night against Cumberlands with the dunk at the end."

Campbell gave the Tigers their biggest lead of 11 in the first half after nailing his only 3-pointer and hitting a step-back 17-footer from the top of the key.

UPIKE would not go away though and started to chip away. The Bears finished the half on a 14-6 run to cut the Campbellsville lead to 47-45. Kenny Manigault led the charge for the Bears with 11 first period points and eight rebounds.

"Pikeville makes you speed up the game," said Adkins. "The way we played today looked to favor them at the start because they want to create as many offensive possessions as possible. They did that with their defense as well but we were able to beat their press and get a few points in transition."

The second half quickly went back in favor of the Tigers. The Tigers stepped up their defense and capitalized off turnovers unlike Pikeville. To that point, CU scored 17 points off UPIKE turnovers compared to only four for the Bears.

Campbellsville held Pikeville to only 13 points in the first 10 minutes of the half.

With the Tigers leading 70-60, Rob Robinson brought the crowd back to its feet with five straight points. The 6-foot-5 junior from Chicago, Ill. hit a floater in the lane and buried a 3-pointer in front of the CU bench to put the Tigers back up by 13 points.

Campbellsville didn't let up though with Campbell coming back down giving the Tigers its largest lead at that point. The senior point guard drove through the middle of lane and hit a layup while being fouled. Campbell hit the free throw and put CU up by 15 points, 75-60.

CU later went up by 18 with another 3-pointer by Robinson and eventually took its largest lead of the game with a Elliott Young 3-pointer with 34 seconds remaining.

Campbellsville held UPIKE leading scorer KK Simmons in check with 14 points on 5-of-15 shooting. Manigault led the Bars with 20 points and Hussey finished with 11 to round the Bears out in double figures.

Rice and Robinson finished with 13 points. Rice checked out of the game at the beginning of the second half and never returned due to a thumb injury. Harris and Darius Clement both pitched in 12 and 10 points, repsectively. Harris also led the charge with seven blocks and 13 rebounds.

Campbellsville will now wait six days in between games and will travel to Lindsey Wilson College for the LWC Classic. The Tigers will play Robert- Morris on Friday, Nov. 28 at 7 p.m. CU will then turn around and play Voorhees College on Saturday afternoon at 3 p.m. You can catch both games live on the Campbellsville University Sports Network - 88.7 The Tigers and WLCUFM.com