CAMPBELLSVILLE, Ky. – Campbellsville men's basketball's only home game in a six-game stretch will take place this Thursday night when the CU hosts No. 15 Pikeville at the Powell Athletic Center.
 
The Bears and Tigers have a similar 16-4 overall record and each coming off of road losses in their most recent games. The men's game is slated for an 8 p.m. ET tip but will start approximately 30 minutes after the Lady Tigers game that will start at 6 p.m. ET.
 
Lady Tiger and Tiger basketball will be back on the air of WLCU-TV Comcast, Channel 10, as well as campbellsvilletigers.com/watch with the radio broadcast remaining on 88.7 FM The Tiger. The voice of Lady Tiger and Tiger basketball, Matt Payton will be on the call for both TV and radio broadcasts.
 
LAST TIME OUT
It was a tale of two halves for the Tigers Saturday afternoon at the O. Wayne Rollins Center that saw the University of the Cumberlands edge out 77-76 victory. CU had to get back into a game that they led by 19 at one point in the first half as the Tigers shot the ball extremely well in the opening 20 minutes. Campbellsville shot 58.1 percent from the field with 11 assists on 18 made baskets. As a team, CU started 5-for-5 from three and finished the half 7-for-10 from distance. The teams reversed roles in the second half as the Patriots started on a big run, that helped them get their first lead of the game. UC went 25-9 through the 10:59 mark in the second half to get a 53-52 lead on the Tigers. In the half, Cumberlands outscored CU 49-32 behind that early run and a combined 31 points from Griggs and Jahi Hinson in the half.
 
MSC REWIND
Only three games were played last weekend in Mid-South Conference play with the home teams earning victories. Along with Cumberlands defeating Campbellsville, Lindsey Wilson earned a win over Pikeville at home and Life defeated Georgetown for their second-straight win over a ranked opponent.
 
SCOUTING PIKEVILLE
The Bears are 3-2 so far in MSC play with the league's top scoring offense at 93.3 points per game. UPike also has the individual leading scorer in the Mid-South in 6-6 wing Jayvian Delacruz  who has the only average over 20 points per game at 22.7, over 11 points more than the next player on the team.
 
HOME SWEET HOME for CU AND msc
Campbellsville enters this Thursday's game against Pikeville at a perfect 12-0 at the Powell Athletic Center so far in the 2018-19 season. The Tigers have only played two home games in the Mid-South Conference season where they defeated Cumberland University and Lindsey Wilson College. The game against Pikeville will be their only home game in this stretch of six games as they will play three-straight road games following the matchup against the Bears.
 
Along with the Tigers, three other teams are unbeaten at home with Pikeville at 16-0, Georgetown at 15-0 and Cumberlands at 11-0.
 
The final note about home teams in the conference is that there has only been one team to pull off a road victory in the total of 19 MSC games played in the 2018-19 season. That road win came from Life University over Shawnee State on Jan. 12 by a final of 78-74.
 
BRAND NEW TERRITORY
CU came away from their two-game trip against Life and Cumberlands with a couple of firsts in the negative sense. The Tigers suffered their first double-digit loss against Life on Jan. 17 as well being in the middle of their first losing streak of the season after they lost to Cumberlands on Jan 19. In the loss to Cumberlands, Campbellsville suffered their second loss after leading by double-digits but their first loss after leading the game by more than 10 points.
 
MATCH-UP TO WATCH - ADAMS VS. DELACRUZ
The match-up to look for in the game between the Tigers in and the Bears is between the pair of do-it-all players in UPike's Jayvian Delacruz and CU's Stephaun Adams. Delacruz, the leading scorer in the conference, is the only player in the Mid-South to average over 20 points per game at 22.7. Adams is not far behind in the scoring department averaging 19.1 points per game, holding the third spot in the conference's leading scorer list. Delacruz is the bigger of the two players at 6-6 and leading his Bears in total rebounds (108) and rebounding average (5.4/game). Adams, as a 6-0 guard, is the third-leading rebounder for the Tigers at 5.3 boards per game as one of three CU players with over 100 rebounds on the season at 106. Adams has the top assist average in the conference with 5.0 helpers per game and his even 100 assists while Delacruz has a lower assist average and total but is the second-leading assist man on his team with 55 so far in the season.
 
CONFERENCE LEADERS
At this point in the season, Campbellsville's big three of Stephaun Adams, Hagen Tyler and Andrew Smith are top-two among Mid-South Conference players in a number of different categories. Adams is the league's leader in steals per game (2.4) and assists per game (5.0) while his 19.1 points per game average is good for third in the conference. Tyler is the best three-point shooter in the conference percentage-wise at 49.3 percent and his 19.5 points per game average is second in the conference. Smith is second in three categories in terms of MSC players, rebounds per game (10.2), blocks per game (2.1) and double-doubles (7).
 
VERNON ALONE IN THIRD
Last Saturday's win for CU was monumental for head coach Brent Vernon in a variety of ways. Vernon earned a victory over Keith Adkins, whom he had worked as an assistant under for three seasons while Adkins was the head coach of Campbellsville. Vernon also moved his career win total to 55, good for third all-time in program history for head coach as he now only trails Adkins and Lou Cunningham. Both Cunningham and Adkins are above the 300-win total with Cunningham's record of 335 wins and Adkins behind him in second at 322.
 
TYLER MOVING ON UP
Senior Guard Hagen Tyler currently has 1,750 points scored in his CU career, recently moving into fifth place all by himself on the all-time scoring list. By scoring 20 points against Life on Jan. 17, Tyler passed James Boulware, who had 1,723. The last time he moved spots was when Tyler moved into sixth against in the MSC opener against Georgetown as he scored 14 points, passing Cecil Eillis. 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 prior to that, 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.
 
UP NEXT
The Tigers will get right back on the road on Saturday to face Shawnee State. The Bears are 2-2 so far in conference play and will come off of a game against Georgetown.