CAMPBELLSVILLE, Ky. – Thursday night will be the final game at the Powell Athletic Center of the 2018-19 season as CU men's basketball will host Shawnee Sate.
 
Tip-off is scheduled for 8 p.m. ET but will begin about 20 minutes after the conclusion of the Lady Tigers game against Shawnee State if the game ends after 7:40 p.m. ET. The voice of Tiger and Lady Tiger basketball, Matt Payton, will bring you all the action as Campbellsville basketball returns to WLCU-TV and the CU Sports Network along with their radio broadcast remaining on 88.7 FM The Tiger.
 
LAST TIME OUT
A week ago, the Tigers upset No. 4 Georgetown at the Powell Athletic Center last Thursday by a final score of 80-71. CU led throughout most of the game, taking an 11-point lead into the halftime break, eventually leading by as much as 18 in the second half. Campbellsville was led by Stephaun Adams, who scored over 20 points for the fourth-straight game finishing with 22 against Georgetown. Adams was backed up by three other CU players in double figures in Andrew Smith (18), Hagen Tyler (13) and Joan Duran (12).
 
MSC REWIND
Last Thursday, all three ranked Mid-South Conference teams lost to unranked opponents as Shawnee State beat No. 11 Pikeville, Life beat No. 21 Cumberlands along with Campbellsville's win over No. 4 Georgetown. In the unranked match-up Lindsey Wilson won huge over Cumberland University 95-71 in Columbia. Cumberland and Shawnee State played each other last Saturday as the only MSC game of the weekend where the Phoenix defeated the Bears by 11 points 77-66 in Lebanon.
 
SCOUTING SHAWNEE STATE
Since the last time these two teams met, the Bears have gone 3-4 with wins against Thomas More College in non-conference and conference wins against Cumberland and most recently against Pikeville. SSU is led by center EJ Onu who is the team's leading scorer (12.3 ppg), rebounder (6.5 rpg) and the conference leader in shot blocks (82).
 
SENIOR NIGHT
Thursday night will be the final home game of the regular season for the Tigers, which will serve as senior night. The men's basketball program will honor its five seniors, Joan Duran, Stephaun Adams, Deion Evans, Andrew Smith, and Hagen Tyler, as they complete their final season of college basketball.
 
Duran and Adams have only spent their senior seasons in Campbellsville but have been major contributors to the Tiger lineup this season as Adams has led the Tigers in scoring back and forth with Tyler throughout the year and Duran has been a quality sixth man coming off of the CU bench.
 
Evans and Smith both played their junior and senior season at CU with Evans playing more of bench role as a junior, averaging 11 minutes per game but has stepped up as a senior, being one of three players this season to start in every game. Smith has been a force around the rim in two seasons, earning first-team all conference as a junior after averaging 14.7 points per game and stepping up that performance as a senior currently at 16.7 points per game. Smith will also likely end his career as the all-time leader in blocked shots as a Tiger as he is two blocks away from tying the current best of 105.
 
Tyler, the lone senior who has been at Campbellsville for all four years, will go down as one of the greatest Tigers to wear the maroon and gray. After averaging 13.7 points per game in his first three seasons, Tyler has stepped his game up immensely as a senior averaging about 19 points per game all season. He is currently the fifth all-time leading scorer in program history and needs 10 points to move into fourth.
 
ADAMS STEPPING UP
In his last four games, Tiger point guard Stephaun Adams has been on a tear scoring the ball. Adams is currently on a four-game streak of scoring 20 or more points, leading CU in scoring in each of their last four games. The Virgin Islands native has also made some clutch buckets lately for Campbellsville including a go-ahead three with under 10 seconds left against Cumberlands. As the Tigers leader in points and assists, Adams will attempt to continue to carry the load for CU during this important stretch of basketball at the end of the season.
 
PREVIOUS MEETING: JAN. 26
The Bears escaped with a one-point victory the last time these two teams met in Portsmouth, Ohio. The Tigers had led most of the game before SSU tied the game with about a minute to go before they took a lead on technical free throws and the game was never tied after that. Andrew Smith and Hagen Tyler both scored over 20 in the game for CU but the Bears were more balanced with four players in double figures.
 
MATCH-UP TO WATCH - ADAMS VS. WATKINS
CU's Stephaun Adams and SSU's Tamal Watkins share similarities in their statistical outputs so far this season. Both are their team's leader in assists and steals as Watkins trails Adams in those categories by significant amounts. Watkins is also the best three-point shooter, percentage-wise, for the Bears at 38.8 percent from distance, which is still lower than Adams' 42.0 percent from three that is good for second on the Tigers behind Hagen Tyler. Both players will look to facilitate scoring for their side weather it's sharing the all or hitting shots from long range.
 
 
TYLER MOVING ON UP
Senior Guard Hagen Tyler currently has 1,871 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. Before that, 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 moved up three more spots in non-conference play, 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
Saturday will be the regular season finale in the Mid-South Conference as the Tigers will travel to Pikeville, Ky. to face No. 11 University of Pikeville. The Tigers could potentially be playing for the second seed going into the conference tournament depending on Thursday's results.