Williamsburg, KY – The Patriots rolled to a huge 92-58 victory over the Lindsey Wilson College Blue Raiders on Thursday night. Harry Morrice asserted his dominance on defense early and finished the night with a new school record, 10 blocks. UC move to 16-5 and 5-1 in MSC play after the 34-point win, their largest in MSC play this season.
Morrice finished just three rebounds short of a triple double with 12 pts, 10 blks, and 7 reb. Robertas Jonaitis had a great showing as well scoring a team-high 20 points while adding eight rebounds. Anthony Johnson finished with 19 pts, 5 reb, and 5 ast followed by Matthew Cromer who had 11 pts, 9 reb, and 2 ast.
UC started the night with a 9-0 run with five points from Johnson and a nice dunk in transition out of Anthony Harris. Morrice claimed his first three blocks of the night in this stretch to keep the Blue Raiders at bay. LWC responded with a pair of buckets, before another Morrice block and two buckets from Cromer and Jonaitis pushed UC's lead back out to nine. DJ Jones got in on the scoring with a finish in the paint followed by another Jonaitis make that made it 21-10 at the under-12 media timeout.
Cromer came out of the timeout with a mid-range jumper that fell to extend the Pats lead to 13. Back-to-back slams from Morrice and Harris held UC's lead before the Blue Raiders fought back within eight. Cromer halted the run with a steal and slam in transition followed by another Morrice basket to put the lead back at 12 with under three minutes to play. The Dundee, Scotland native continued to dominate, finishing another lay in off a dime from Cromer. With an 11-point lead, LWC tried to cut their deficit to single digits as time expired, but Morrice played rim protector once again, claiming his seventh block of the first half, giving UC the 39-28 lead into the break.
After Lindsey Wilson scored the first bucket of the second half, Morrice responded right away with one of his own. The first triple of the night for UC came two minutes later as Jonaitis found the bottom of the net. The next defensive possession, Morrice blocked back-to-back LWC shot attempts, giving him nine on the evening. Johnson and Jonaitis then exploded on the offensive end, outscoring their opponents 18-5 over the next four minutes of play, giving UC a 64-37 lead with 12:08 to play.
Back-to-back buckets from Jones stretched the lead to 29 with just over 10 minutes on the clock. The Blue Raiders tried to keep attacking the rim, but Morrice denied them once again, claiming his 10th block with 9:37 to go in the game, setting a new Cumberlands program record for blocks in a game. He followed his block with a pair of buckets on the other end off nice finds from Tanner Walton and Tajahri Cave. Walton and Cave combined for nine assists and nine boards for the game. Another Cromer steal led to a fastbreak slam, giving the senior his 11th point of the night. Walton and Ryan Davidson went on to knock down threes on straight possessions as UC's lead grew to 30.
The final six minutes of play continued to see UC dominate the Blue Raiders. Walton found Jonaitis on a back door cut, capped off with a huge slam over the LWC defender for an and-one. Two more Davidson layups and a Brady Bell triple made it 90-56 with under a minute to play. Cave then capped the night off with his second steal of the night, which led to a windmill jam for UC's final points of the night. The final buzzer sounded with UC taking the conference matchup, 92-58.
The Patriots will be right back at home in two days as they are set to take on the Tigers of Campbellsville University. Tip-off is scheduled for 3 PM ET.
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