Box Score

PIKEVILLE, Ky. – Limited to just five players in uniform due to illness, St. Catharine (Ky.) could only keep up with the University of Pikeville women's basketball team for so long before taking an 84-62 loss to close out the regular season on Saturday at the East Ky. Expo Center.

While the Patriots' (4-21, 1-17) season comes to an end, UPIKE (13-17, 7-11 MSC) advances to the Mid-South Conference Tournament on Friday in Lebanon, Tenn. The Bears are the No. 6 seed and play third-seeded Cumberlands (Ky.) at 9 p.m. ET.

Callisha Johnson and Kelah Eldridge paced the Bears with 15 points each, while Brogan Conley added 12 and Brittany Swindall chipped in with 10. Conley also pulled down 12 rebounds to finish with a double-double.

The regular-season finale was also senior night for the Bears as Conley, Johnson and Swindall were honored prior to the game.

Machera Calhoun led all scorers for St. Catharine with 29 points, but her effort was hard to capitalize on with five players playing 40 minutes. After shooting 53.8 percent from the field in the opening half, the Patriots finished shooting just 34.9 percent.

The Bears were solid from the field at 44 percent and added 11-of-26 shooting from behind the arc to gain control of the game. A 58-36 advantage on the backboards did help, including a 22-12 advantage on the offensive glass.

Although UPIKE ended up winning big by 22 points, it was the Patriots in front at halftime 40-38. They had led by as many as six at 22-16 on a free throw by Calhoun with 11:58 on the clock. Tied 33-33 in the final three minutes, St. Catharine connected on a pair of threes to build a 40-38 lead at the break.

Conley opened the second half with a three to put the Bears up one and from there the game belonged to UPIKE. Swindall hit a jumper five minutes later to put Pikeville up by 10 and less than four minutes after that it was 21 as Khalilah Quigley finished a pass from Eldridge at the rim.

UPIKE largest lead would be 26 points on a jumper in the corner by Christin Haney as Calhoun and St. Catharine ran out of gas.