Box Score

PORTSMOUTH, Ohio — Campbellsville overcame a 13-point first-half deficit but could not hold on to a six-point lead in the second half, dropping its second straight game, 63-61.

 

 

Leading by five points, 61-56 with 4:27, Campbellsville went ice cold from the floor missing its last seven shots.

 

Shawnee State whittled the CU lead to one, 61-60 and Sean Elliott hit a free throw to knot the game at 61 with 1:52 remaining.

 

Campbellsville had two great looks in its final full possession with Eric Gaines and Darius Clement both missing layups. Shawnee State's Elliott was the hot hand for the Bears the entire game and that's who SSU went to in its final possession.

 

His driving runner in the lane, was blocked by Damontre Harris, but the ball was ruled as coming down and Harris was called for goaltending.

 

Elliott finished with a game-high 16 points and hit three 3-pointers – all in the first half to spark the SSU early lead.

 

Trailing 63-61 after the goaltend, Campbellsville called timeout and drew up a play, but the Bears fouled D'Von Campbell when he came across half court with 1.4 seconds remaining since they were not in the bonus.

 

After multiple timeouts again, Campbell had a desperation step-back 3 at the buzzer but it came off the rim short.

 

"Let's just tell it like it is we got what we deserved," said Tiger head coach Keith Adkins. "We haven't played well in a long time. We have won some games against mediocre teams and we haven't put together a full game since early December. It seems like we have gotten complacent with the No. 1 ranking and awards aren't given out in January. We need to get back to work this week before Saturday."

 

Campbellsville once again fell behind early like it has done in previous games. The Tigers can't seem to put a full game together and Adkins spoke about that in his post-game interview.

 

"The past three games we have gotten behind early and had to fight back," said Adkins. "Before that we played Philander Smith and John Brown and came back after being down 20 and had to hold on late to win both of those. We have to learn how to come out with a little fight and toughness to start the game or really good teams will not allow us to make runs like we have."

 

Shawnee took an early 11-0 lead with the Tigers not getting on the scoreboard until the 15:40 mark. But Campbellsville started to slowly chip away at Shawnee and picked up a spark from sophomore Elliott Young. Young picked up an offensive rebound and had a put-back layup for his first points, went down on the defensive end and drew a charge then came back down and hit his third 3-pointer with 8:57 remaining in the half.

 

Young ended hitting his final 3 with five minutes left in the half to knot the game at 26 and fellow sophomore Quin Richardson gave CU its first lead, 29-28 with a 3 of his own.

 

Young finished hitting 5-of-6 shots and 4-of-6 from behind the arc. He also had three rebounds in just 19 minutes of play. Richardson finished with 12 points, hitting two 3s and all four of his free throw attempts.

 

"We have to figure out a way to get Elliott on the floor more," said Adkins. "We need to be able to get a bigger lineup out there and with his ability to hit the outside shot that extends defenses and gives us more opportunities in one-on-one situations underneath."

 

Gaines also scored 12 points and led all rebounders with 15. The Tigers picked up one more board than the Bears, 41-40.

 

Campbellsville shot 35.8 percent (19-of-53) from the floor and 36 percent (9-of-25) from behind the 3-point line. CU struggled from the free throw line for the second straight game, hitting only 63.6 percent (14-of-22).

 

Shawnee State knocked down its free throws, hitting 14-of-17 (82.4 percent) but also struggled from the floor overall hitting 33.9 percent (21-of-62) and 7-of-21 (33.3 percent) from deep.

 

"We'll see how resilient this team is," said Adkins. "We will need to bounce back and have a good week of practice before traveling to Life this next weekend."

 

CU goes to Life University (Ga.) on Saturday, Jan. 31 with tipoff scheduled at 4 p.m. You can listen to the game live on 88.7 The Tiger with Jay Turner on the call.