Pikeville, KY – Despite having four players in double-figures and combining for 62 points, 18 rebounds, and11 assists the Cumberlands men's basketball team fell to Pikeville by a final of 83-76 Monday night at the Appalachian Wireless Arena. With the win the Bears improve to 12-3 overall and 5-2 in conference play, while the Patriots move to 10-5 overall and 4-3 against the MSC.
Steven Fitzgerald finished the game as the team's leading scorer for the seventh time this season with 19 points. Jahi Hinson netted ten of his 16 points in the second half to go along with 11 rebounds for his third double-double of the season. J.J. Ramey finished with 15 points with five made three-pointers to his ledger as Isaiah Payton registered a dozen points and dished out four assists in the game.
Cumberlands came out of the gates hot as they opened the game shooting 5-6 from the floor as part of a 12-2 run with a little over three minutes expired. Payton and Hinson drained consecutive three's as part of eight unanswered points to start the game. Lamar Harris Jr. finished off the run with a resounding dunk of a steal by Payton. Pikeville went on a 7-1 run, before Ramey converted from behind-the-arc for extend UC's lead to 16-9 with 14:29 remaining. From that point the Bears scored 10 unanswered, over a span of 4:31, to take a 19-16 advantage. Cumberlands continued to battle as Matt Cromer found Ramey from long range to even the score at 19-19 midway through the first half.
A minute later, Fitzgerald added one of his three triples on the game to put UC back in front. UPike than utilized a 17-2 run over then next five minutes to take their largest lead of the game at 38-24 with 4:13 remaining. Cumberlands battled back closing out the first half on an 11-2 run, in part to a trio of three-pointers by three different Patriots, to cut the deficit to five points at 40-35 heading into the locker room.
Both teams came out of the break strong as they traded baskets over the first five minutes of the second half as Pikeville extended their lead to 55-43. Cumberlands responded as Austin Hall blocked a shot on the defensive end and found Hinson for a layup on the ensuing transition to spark a 7-2 run to cut the deficit to 57-50 with 13:52 remaining. The Patriots continued to chip away at the deficit as midway through the half Harris converted a layup before Hinson drained a three-pointer to bring UC within four at 64-60 with 9:31 left. The two teams continued to trade buckets and two minutes later Ramey added his fourth triple of the game cutting the deficit to 67-64 with 7:02 remaining. That was the closest Cumberlands came as the Bears went on an 8-0 run stretching their lead back to double-digits. Both teams traded baskets over the final minutes of the game with Payton hitting from behind-the-arc in the closing seconds for the 83-76 final.
The Patriots will look to grab win number one of 2022 against Freed-Hardeman on Thursday, January 6th, when Cumberlands hosts the Lions inside the O. Wayne Rollins Center with tip-off set for 8:00 p.m.
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