CAMPBELLSVILLE, Ky. — For the fifth time in Ginger Colvin's tenure, and the 19th time overall in Campbellsville University women's basketball's storied history, the Mid-South Conference regular season title belongs to the Lady Tigers.

Fourth-ranked Campbellsville rolled past No. 19 Shawnee State University, 77-45, for its second-straight MSC championship Thursday night. It is also the 13th title in just 20 years since the conference originated in 1995-96. CU's previous six were won in the Kentucky Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (KIAC).

Campbellsville will now be the No. 1 seed in the upcoming Mid-South Conference Tournament, which will be played Thursday, March 5 through Sunday, March 8 at the Frankfort Convention Center.


BOX SCORE
 

"Tonight we had great energy," said Colvin. "We were solid on both ends of the court, and it was a total team effort. I couldn't be more proud of this team and their accomplishments. Winning the conference is an extremely difficult feat, especially trying to clinch against a very good Shawnee State program. I could see them making a deep run in the national tournament."

CU used two different styles of play in each half but went to the deep ball in the final period to grow its lead as large as 32 late in the game.

Caroline Owen drilled four 3-pointers and Emily Fox followed with three for her nine points. Owen led the Lady Tigers for the second-straight game with 14 points and has hit nine triples in that span. Fox finished with a career-high six rebounds.

Lindsey Burd finished with 13 points, LeeAnn Grider scored 12 and Daizah Kimberland finished with 10. Campbellsville shot 8-of-17 (47 percent) from behind the arc and 30-of-65 (46 percent) overall. The Bears finished hitting 21 percent (4-of-19) from behind the 3-point line and 34.6 percent (18-of-52) from the floor. Campbellsville also outrebounded the Bears, 42-27, with 21 of CU's rebounds coming on the offensive glass.

"When our posts are aggresive it really opens up shots for our guards," said Colvin. "We have a lot of energy on defense and that led to offense. Our guards did a good job getting the ball into the posts, and the forwards did a good job passing out of the post."

Campbellsville excelled in the paint in the early going. Kimberland, Burd and Chelsea Craig combined for 14 of the first 18 points.

Kristen Jacob joined the trio in a different way. The junior from Lexington, Ky., hit Burd on the block, who in turn scored her sixth point at the time to extend the CU lead, 22-15, with eight minutes left in the first half.

Burd returned the favor a few minutes later and hit a cutting Jacob to push the Lady Tigers to 24-16. Fox then came down and drilled the first Edward Jones 3 for Campbellsville to give CU its first double-digit lead, 27-16, and force a Shawnee State timeout.

CU's game plan coming in was to use its depth at the post position and keep throwing out a new forward at the MSC's leading scorer Ali Zieverink. In the first matchup, Zieverink played the entire 40 minutes and scored 23 points but went 1-of-8 from the free throw line. It proved to be the deciding factor in the Lady Tigers' come back win after being down 14 points in the second half.

Tonight, Zieverink was held to seven points, her lowest mark of the season. She also grabbed only four rebounds.

"When we are able to throw four or five different forwards out there in a span of a game it will get to any team that isn't as deep. Our depth has really helped late in the season," said Colvin.

Shawnee State came in averaging 16 turnovers but Campbellsville extended its patented twilight zone defense to force 18 turnovers in the first 20 minutes. The Bears finished the game with 23 turnovers.

Craig pushed the Lady Tigers ahead 35-19 with a 19-7 run in the middle of the first half. SSU went frigid cold from the floor, hitting four field goals in the final 12:15 of the first half.

Campbellsville took a 37-24 lead at half.

Shawnee State came out firing in the second half and Zieverink was able to cut the Lady Tiger lead to single digits, 37-28, at the 18:20 mark.

CU was able to respond and worked its lead back to double-digits off a mixture of Kimberland jumpers and a few long range triples. Owen knocked down two 3s and Fox hit another to extend the Lady Tiger lead to 46-34. Kimberland then scored six-straight  to push CU up to 55-39.

Owen nailed her third 3 in the midst of a 12-0 run for Campbellsville. Over the next eight minutes, the Lady Tigers went on a 20-7 run to make its lead 60-38 with 8:15 to play. 

Fox did not let her teammate outdo her, though and tied the team lead with her third triple at the 7:12 mark. That didn't last long, as Owen would answer right back and hit her fourth 3 with 4:43 left. 

Check back this weekend for final MSC standings and more information on the MSC Tournament. Follow the Lady Tigers on Twitter - @LTB_CU and @CvilleTigers.