CAMPBELLSVILLE, Ky. – Campbellsville men's basketball will hope to turn the tides on their three-game losing streak as they head to Portsmouth, Ohio to face Shawnee State Saturday afternoon.
 
The voice of Tiger and Lady Tiger basketball, Matt Payton, will bring you all the action on 88.7 FM The Tiger as the men's game is slated to tip-off at 4 p.m. ET but will being about 20-30 minutes after the conclusion of the Lady Tigers game against Shawnee State.
 
LAST TIME OUT
The Tigers dropped their third-straight contest on Thursday to No. 15 Pikeville as the Bears used a 14-0 run to start the second half to gain the upper hand. CU entered halftime with a 41-37 lead but UPike's second half shooting carried them to gain a 16-point lead with six minutes left in the game. The Tigers then went on a 14-2 run over the next three minutes to cut the Bears' lead to 77-75 where Pikeville was able to hold onto their lead for the remainder of the game. The fatal blow for UPike was a three-pointer by point guard Chase Paresley late in the shot clock and with 30 seconds left in the game to give them a 86-82 lead. The Bears shot lights out from three-point range in the game, shooting 63.2 percent for the game.
 
MSC REWIND
Campbellsville was not the only home team to suffer a defeat Thursday night as University of the Cumberlands beat Lindsey Wilson 77-66 in Columbia, Ky. with No. 6 Georgetown and Cumberland University both defending home court. The Tigers defeated Shawnee State 79-71 in Georgetown and the Phoenix edged out a one-point victory over Life 83-82 in Lebanon.
 
SCOUTING SHAWNEE STATE
The Bears started off conference play with two nine-point wins over Pikeville and Cumberlands but have lost their next four conference games following that. They average 79.3 points per game and allow an even 80 points per game. Their leading scorer is Gio Jackson at 13.3 points per game. Jackson has only played in eight games with his first game of the season coming on Dec. 31 right before MSC play began.
 
CRUCIAL ROAD STRETCH
Saturday's game will begin a stretch of three-straight games away from home for CU and all against the teams with current losing records in Mid-South Conference play. With the Tigers being among the teams with a conference record below .500, CU will look to do something that has been tough to do so far in MSC play, win multiple road games. Winning road games has been hard enough in the conference with only three of the 23 total games played in the conference so far being won by the road team and no team in the conference has won twice on the road as of yet.
 
SOMETHING'S GOTTA GIVE
Heading into the weekend, both the Bears and the Tigers hold the longest currently losing streaks in the Mid-South Conference. SSU is currently on a four-game losing streak with losses to Life, Lindsey Wilson, Thomas More College and Georgetown. CU is on a similar three-game losing streak, dropping their previous three conference games to Life, Cumberlands and most recently, Pikeville on Thursday. Shawnee State has only played five games in the Mid-South so far with a 2-3 record, a half-game ahead of CU who are now 2-4 in MSC play.
 
SECOND HALF STRUGGLES
In their two most recent games, Campbellsville has seen halftime leads disappear to second half runs by their opponent. The Tigers went into the break against University of the Cumberlands on Jan. 19 with a 16-point lead at 44-28 but the Patriots went on a 25-9 run through the nine-minute mark in the half. UC ended up beating the Tigers by a point at 77-76 but CU had to play catchup in the second half after the run by the Patriots. With not nearly as big of a lead at halftime against Pikeville, the Bears went on a 14-0 run to start the half after trailing 41-37 at half. Once again needing to come from behind, the Tigers pulled off their own 14-2 run to get back within a possession but couldn't ever take the lead back from UPike.
 
MATCH-UP TO WATCH - SMITH VS. ONU
If you like size, rebounding, blocked shots and low post play, then we have the match-up for you this Saturday. Campbellsville's Andrew Smith and Shawnee State's EJ Onu are the two best rim protectors in the Mid-South Conference with Onu leading in both total blocks (59) and blocks per game (2.79). Smith, is not too far behind after missing the Tigers' first three games of the season as he has 39 total blocks for an average of 2.17 blocks per game. Both are in the top-five in rebounding average in the conference with Smith in second at 10.28 boards per game and Onu at fifth with 7.42 per game. Smith is the better scorer at 16.5 points per game compared to 11.6 for Onu but both shoot over 55 percent from the field.
 
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 (2.2) and assists per game (5.0) while his 19.2 points per game average is good for third in the conference. Tyler is the best three-point shooter in the conference percentage-wise at 49.7 percent and his 19.4 points per game average is second in the conference. Smith is second in three categories in terms of MSC players, rebounds per game (10.3), blocks per game (2.2) and double-doubles (8).
 
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 1,768 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 continue on their three-game road stretch with a trip to Cumberland University next Thursday. The Tigers defeated the Phoenix 54-53 in their first meeting earlier this season.