Williamsburg, KY – The UC men's basketball team erased a 14-point deficit in part to a strong second half as they defeated IU Southeast 81-66 to open up play in the Cumberlands Classic Thursday night. After a pedestrian first half, UC outscored the Grenadiers 54-31 in the final twenty minutes of action as Jahi Hinson recorded a new career-high in the comeback.
The final half of play was all Patriots thanks to the contributions of Hinson, who had 21 of the team's 54 points. Hinson shot 6-7 from the field in the second half on his way to a 8-17 night and a career-high 27 points. Steven Fitzgerald and J.J. Ramey each added 14 points as Fitzgerald also grabbed 11 rebounds to complete the double-double. Lamar Harris notched 12 points and eight rebounds in the win.
The game did not start off the way the Patriots wanted to as they found themselves down 7-0 with only two minutes off the game clock. IU Southeast set the tone early on with solid offensive production from all over the floor and hounding defense. The Grenadiers shot 46.7% from the field in the first half while UC shots just 8-36 (22.2%).
The major discrepancy in offensive production led to Cumberlands finding themselves down the entire first half. At the 5:22 mark, UC trailed by 13 points, however, a Ramey layup sparked an 8-0 run for the Patriots and was capped off by a Ramey layup to cut the deficit to 28-23 two minutes later. The two teams traded baskets as Cumberlands got within four points ona Matt Cromer layup, however IU Southeast netted the final four points of the half to take a 35-27 edge into the break. UC played a clean game early on as they committed only four fouls in half number one while only coughing the ball up four times as well.
The Patriots came out of the halftime break and hit the ground running as they went on a 23-12 run through the first 10 minutes of the second half to pull even at 50-50. During that run, UC
went 9-12 from the floor with Harris accounting for four of those made baskets as he had a pair of thunderous dunks and a block to energize UC to battle all the way back. Harris had a huge second half in which he scored 10 of his 12 points while acting as the spark the Patriots needed to pull even.
After Cumberlands found a way to knot things up at 50, they did not let off the gas as they outscored IU Southeast 31-16 in the final 10 minutes of play. Ten of those 31 points came from Hinson who shot 4-4 during that stretch while also knocking down a pair from the charity stripe.
Along with Hinson, Ramey was a major reason for that run as he shot 3-3 while knocking down a triple. The tandem of Hinson and Ramey helped put this one out of reach as with every make the two were turning this once tight contest into a lop-sided win for UC.
The Patriots will return to action tomorrow (Nov. 12) as they wrap up the Cumberlands Classic against Union with tip-off set for 4:00 p.m. inside the O. Wayne Rollins Center. With a win against the Bulldogs, Cumberlands will be off to a 6-0 start for the second year in a row and the ninth time in the past 20 years.
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