CAMPBELLSVILLE, Ky. – Campbellsville men's basketball will begin their December schedule on Saturday as they host the Knights of Central Pennsylvania College at the Powell Athletic Center at 4 p.m. ET.
 
LAST TIME OUT
The Tigers won their 10th-straight game to start the season and ninth by a margin of 20 or more points in their 99-76 win over East-West University. Hagen Tyler dropped a season-high 27 points in the game to lead CU in scoring as Andrew Smith recorded his third double-double of the year with 21 points and 11 rebounds. The Tigers shot exceptionally well from the free-throw line as they went 25-for-28 for a season-best 89.3% including a 10-for-10 night from Stephaun Adams.
 
SMITH'S BLOCK PARTY
Senior forward Andrew Smith has 17 blocks in seven games this season to average 2.4 blocks per game. After missing CU's first three games and only getting three blocks in his first three games of the season, Smith now has four-straight games with three or more blocks. That includes five blocks in the Nov. 23 game against Berkeley College. His career total puts him at 74 at the moment to put him in seventh place in CU history, one block behind Rick Staley and six away from breaking the top-five. The all-time record is 105 by Damontre Harris as he recorded all 105 in one season.
 
SCOUTING CENTRAL PENN
The Knights are 2-3 at the time of finalizing the notes, but will play Lindsey Wilson on Friday, Nov. 30 before facing the Tigers on Dec.1. CPC has played only two teams within their own division of the USCAA in Five Towns College and Penn State Wilkes-Barre at the Penn State Scranton Tip-Off Tournament.
 
STARTERS CARRYING THE LOAD
As head coach Brent Vernon has established the starting lineup of Jacob King, Stephaun Adams, Hagen Tyler, Deion Evans and Andrew Smith for the last seven games, all five players are averaging double figures in points on the season. In fact, that combination of Tigers is averaging a total of 80.9 points per game with the team averaging 98.7 points per game meaning the starters are responsible for just about 82 percent of the team's total points per game. Adams (20.6) and Smith (20.1) are both averaging over 20 points per game, Tyler is averaging 19.3 with King and Evans averaging 10 points per game. Smith also averages 10.1 rebounds to average a double-double.
 
ADAMS BACK-TO-BACK POTW
For the second time in as many weeks, CU guard Stephaun Adams was named the Mid-South Conference's Player of the Week on Monday. In the two games CU played last week, Adams averaged 23 points, seven rebounds and six assists. The highlight of his week came in Saturday's 116-72 win over Allen University last Saturday when the Virgin Islands native scored a career-high 30 points while adding eight rebounds and four assists. Adams shot 10-for-20 from the field (50%) and 7-for-13 from three (54%). In Friday's 93-69 win over Berkeley College, Adams scored 16 points while assisting on eight baskets and grabbing six rebounds, all on the defensive side of the floor.
 
Adams is in the top-10 in the NAIA in six different categories including assists, assists per game, total three-pointers made, three-pointers made per game, steals, and total points scored.
 
SEASON OPENING STREAK
CU has started the 2018-19 season on a 10-game winning streak. That is their longest winning streak to start a season in 20 years when they started with a streak of 19-straight in the 1998-98 season. That season, the Tigers finished 29-3 but did not make the NAIA tournament.
 
CATEGORY LEADERS
The Tigers are in the top-10 in the country in 10 different categories. They lead the NAIA in total three-point field goals made with 118, 15 more than the person in second place team. The Tigers are also second in total assists with 201 and seventh in three-pointers made per game with 12.
 
The other categories CU is high on the list for is fifth total points scored (888), fifth in assist/turnover ratio (1.59), ninth in assists per game (20.2), eighth in total rebounding offense (389), fifth in scoring offense per game (98.7), eighth in defensive rebounds per game (33.6) and ninth in field goal percentage (52.5%).
 
TYLER MOVING ON UP
Senior Guard Hagen Tyler currently has 1,553 points scored in his CU career, good for seventh place all time in program history. Hagen entered the top-10 in scoring all-time in CU history in the season opener against Kentucky Christian. He has moved up three spots since then, two spots in two games as he passed Marcio Kardosh with his 20-point game on Nov. 23 then followed it up with 21 the next night to pass Ramont Smith.
 
SCHEDULE COOLING OFF
As the final days of November near, the schedule will become slightly less busy for CU in December. Since the start of the season, the Tigers will have played 10 games in 30 days but in December they will just play five times in 30 days with a 18-day break from the 10th of December until the 29th.
 
HOME GAMES ON CU SPORTS NETWORK
All Tiger basketball home games will be streamed on the CU Sports Network on campbellsvilletigers.com as well as the home games in the Mid-South Conference schedule being aired on WLCU-TV. Even if anyone won't be able to make it out to the Powell Athletic Center for CU home games, you can watch the Tigers play all of their home games for free on our athletics website. New this season on the CU Sports Network will be the inclusion of four-camera broadcasts as we attempt to bring a more in-depth, professional broadcast feel to basketball games during the 2018-19 season.
 
DEEP MID-SOUTH CONFERENCE
Though the Tigers have the 29th most points in the NAIA coaches' poll, four Mid-South Conference teams rank ahead of them in the preseason. Campbellsville was also picked to tie for fourth in the MSC by the Mid-South coaches in their preseason poll, tying with Lindsey Wilson with 29 points and behind Georgetown (47), Pikeville (45) and Cumberlands (34). The three teams ahead of CU and Lindsey Wilson are also all in the top 25 in the NAIA to start the season as Georgetown is ranked 4th, Pikeville is ranked 8th, Cumberlands is ranked 16th and Lindsey Wilson sneaked into the top 25 at 25th.
 
NAIA TOP-25 POLL LOOMING
The first in-season NAIA Coaches Poll will be released next Tuesday, Dec. 4 after the Tigers were just outside the top-25 in the preseason poll. CU is one of only 13 teams in NAIA Division I to remain undefeated so far in the 2018-19 season, have the sixth highest scoring average in the NAIA and are 10th in the country in average scoring margin at 25.1.
 
UP NEXT
With the seven-game home stand ending on Saturday, the Tigers will play their first game away from the Powell Athletic Center in 27 days when they play Carver College in the Lindsey Wilson Classic.