Williamsburg, KY – UC rolled passed the Roadrunners of Dalton State in route to their first 8-0 start to a season in a decade on Tuesday night. The Patriots led by just seven-points at the half, but ended up taking a 91-74 victory, their biggest win over DSC in program history.
 
Five Patriots finished with double-digits including J.J. Ramey who had his best performance of the season. He scored 22 points off 6-9 shooting from deep, tying his career record for threes in a game. The senior also added 7 reb, 2 ast, 2 blk, and 2 stl. Jonathan Brown scored 19 points with 4 steals while DJ Jones added 15 pts, 6 reb, and 3 ast. Anthony Johnson netted 12 points and led the team with 8 rebounds with Matthew Cromer adding 10 pts and 7 reb as well.
 
Brown started the game with UC's first five points and assisted a Robertas Jonaitis layup through a foul over the opening three minutes to give the Pats an 8-7 lead. Brown scored another bucket and got his first steal of the night, leading to a Jonaitis tip in for a 12-9 lead. DSC hit a free throw before a Tajahri Cave layin and a three and FT from Ramey put UC up 18-12. The Roadrunners responded with a three of their own prior to a nice Tanner Walton basket and an alley-oop from Jonaitis to Johnson to give UC a seven point advantage with just over 10 to play.
 
Cromer and Johnson found each other on back-to-back possessions to go up 29-22 before Dalton State scored five straight to make it a two-point game. Another Ramey three pushed the lead back to five with 4:26 to play in the first. The final four minutes saw back and forth action from both sides, with Ramey knocking down his third three of the night as the final bucket of the half to take a 41-34 lead into the break.
 
A nice feed from Brown to Jonaitis started the second half in UC's favor. DSC finished an and-one the next possession before Jones hit a deep three to go back up by nine. The next eight minutes went back and forth as UC's lead stayed at nine with 10:48 left in the contest. This stretch saw three more Ramey triples and a Johnson three as well, along with four free throws from Brown. Another Johnson slam followed by Jones' second three of the half gave UC their first double-digit lead of the night.
 
The lead stayed at ten over the next four minutes before Jones went off for six points in four possessions. Layups from Cromer and Brown stretched the lead to 16 followed by another huge Johnson dunk to give the Pats their largest lead of the game at 18 with less than a minute to play. Jones knocked down a free throw in the closing seconds as  UC took the win 91-74.
 
Cumberlands will enjoy Thanksgiving before traveling south to Kingsport, TN where they will be competing in The Show. They are set to faceoff against IU East on Saturday the 25^th at 12:45, and WVU Tech Sunday at 4:15.
 
For the latest and most up-to-date information on University of the Cumberlands Athletics. Please visit www.cumberlandspatriots.com. Follow us on Twitter- @UC_Patriots and @UCPatsGameday, Instagram- @UCPatriots, TikTok- @ucpatriots, Youtube- Cumberlands Patriots, and Facebook by searching University of the Cumberlands Athletics.