CAMPBELLSVILLE, Ky. – Campbellsville University men's basketball pulled out a 56-52 win Saturday to hold off an upset try by Shawnee State University in Powell Athletic Center.

SSU (8-17, 2-13 MSC) entered the game on a seven-game losing streak since beating the Tigers, 77-61, in Portsmouth, Ohio on Jan. 16. Campbellsville on the other hand carried a five-game win streak into the game, including four of the last five coming down to the last possession.

"I don't think there's a question we were due for one of these. This had the making of a letdown game. You have a team coming in here that's at the bottom of the standings and we just came off three emotional games in a row," said CU head coach Keith Adkins. "I'm disappointed we didn't compete a little bit better. I think the competition could have been a little higher, but hey, maybe this is our wakeup call after a good run that tells us we haven't arrived."

The Tigers and Bears opened the game with four lead changes in eight minutes. The latest came on a 3-pointer by Quin Richardson, who then added another to put CU up 15-10. Shawnee kept the margin within two possessions until CU built a 7-2 run to go up by nine, 25-16, with 4:50 to play.

CU worked its lead to as many as 10 in the first half, 34-24, on a long jumper by Darius Clement, but Ethan Moffatt hit a 3 to end the half for the bears. Campbellsville led 34-27 at the break.

Campbellsville was 3-for-5 from the field in the first three minutes of the second half, including a 3-pointer by Miles Rice to go back up by 10 points, 41-31, with 16:50 to play.

The Tigers struggled the rest of the way, shooting 4-for-26 the rest of the game, as Shawnee responded to Rice's 3 with a 10-1 run to pull within a point, 42-31, on an Andrew Bendolph basket with 9:51 to play.

Both teams continued to have trouble finding the basket, keeping the score low. Bendolph hit a 3-pointer and gave Shawnee State a 48-47 lead with 3:28 to play.

Eric Gaines hit 4-of-6 free throws in the final three minutes to help secure the win. Rice knocked down a free throw with four seconds left to make it a four-point game, 56-52, and then came up with a steal on a long baseball pass to end the game.

Gaines led CU with 15 points and 14 rebounds, his fourth straight double-double, despite not being a factor in certain stretches of the game.

"His rebounding was there, but the energy level was not. There were people blowing past him off the dribble. I think he fumbled passes, and he didn't have the step or the bounce that he normally has," said Adkins. "As they say, good teams find a way to win when they don't play well, well good players find a way to come up with big plays when they haven't played well. That's what Darius has done for a number of weeks, and now Eric made some big plays at the end, a couple of defensive rebounds and made some free throws that were important."

Bendolph finished with 13 points to lead Shawnee State, while Andrew Devlin had 10 points and 15 rebounds and Mark Bryant added 10 points.

The 108 combined points and 56 CU points are the lowest in a Campbellsville win since winning 55-52 at Lindsey Wilson College in February 2008.

CU (14-10, 9-6 MSC) will travel to St. Catharine College (16-9, 9-6) on Thursday, Feb. 20 in a battle for fourth place in the MSC, if not more. With losses Saturday by Georgetown College (9-5 MSC) and University of Rio Grande (9-5 MSC), CU and SCC are now a half game out of second place in the conference standings.

"We've put ourselves in a good spot as the standings go, and that adds to the importance of next Thursday's game. St. Cats is going to be jacked up. They're maybe looking at our game as a revenge game. We beat them here and got them out of the rankings, and now, whoever gets a win next Thursday is in a good spot," said Adkins. "We've put ourselves back in the mix, but our guys have to understand one like this here today, can take you right back out of the mix also. You can't have days off when you've put yourself in the situation we're in, and you can't underestimate anybody. You've got approach every one of them with a championship game mentality, and understand you can take one step forward or one giant step back."

Tipoff for Thursday at St. Catharine is scheduled for 8 p.m. EST.