KANSAS CITY, Mo. – A 2018-19 season that saw the Campbellsville men's basketball team have eight final results come down to one possession and five one-point finishes came to and end Wednesday afternoon with a 71-70 loss to Lewis-Clark State College in the first round of the NAIA National Tournament.
The Tigers led by 10 points at 63-53 after a layup from
Joan Duran at the 8:07 mark but the Warriors finished the game on a 19-7 run to finish the game on their way to that 71-70 final score. All of their final seven points came from the free throw line as CU also missed three free throws down the stretch, going 7-for-10 from the line over the final 5:15.
CU's leading scorer in the game was
Stephaun Adams, who finished with a game-high 19 points on 5-of-15 shooting and perfect 8-for-8 from the free-throw line. Adams carried the scoring load in the second half scoring 12 in the second 20 minutes of play.
In the first half, Campbellsville got off to a bit of a slow start to trail by eight early after the Warriors jumped out to a 14-6 lead. The Tigers answered with a 17-4 run to take a 23-18 lead and led by as many as nine before heading into the break up 36-30.
Hagen Tyler starred in the opening 20 minutes with 13 points on 5-for-6 shooting and 3-for-3 from deep. Tyler was taken away in the second half by Lewis-Clark State in the second half as the fourth leading scorer in CU men's basketball history only took two shots from the field in the second half and scored all five of his second half points from the free throw line to finish with 18.
It was a bit of a tough game for big man
Andrew Smith who finished with 14 points on 6-for-15 shooting from the field. Smith played a lot of the second half in foul trouble after finishing the first with eight points and he ended up picking up his fifth foul with 1:22 left in the game to foul out.
Smith did hit a milestone before his time at Campbellsville came to a close as the forward reached the 1,000-point mark with his eighth point in the first half to become the 33
rd member of the 1,000-point club at CU men's basketball history.
The Tigers were hurt by the turnover on Wednesday as they finished with 18 on the game compared to 14 from the Warriors. The 18 turnovers tied a season-high when they committed 18 as well in their second game of the season back in November against Voorhees College.
Campbellsville finishes the 2018-19 season with a 22-10 record and their second-straight trip to the NAIA National Tournament. The Tigers will be graduating five seniors who are five of their top six scorers in Adams, Tyler, Smith, Duran, and
Deion Evans.
