Box Score
Bracket | NAIA Championship Central

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Keala King poured in a career-high 32 points to go along with 10 rebounds and Chris Cantino posted a double-double as well with 12 points and 13 boards as the University of Pikeville ran past Lindenwood-Belleville (Ill.) 103-76 in the first round of the NAIA Men's Baskeball National Championship on Thursday at Municipal Auditorium.

The Bears advance to the second round for the first time since the national-championship run in 2011. UPIKE faces St. Gregory's (Okla.), which upset No. 15-seed Wiley (Texas) 84-69, at 1:30 p.m. ET on Friday.

Lindenwood-Belleville, one of the newest members of the NAIA, was making its first trip to the national championship and it ended up being a short one as the talented Bears kept their feet on the gas pedal.

"Our approach was really good, our guys were focused and I think our experience from the past helped us settle in," said UPIKE head coach Kelly Wells. "Our five seniors gave an unbelievable effort. I tell them all the time we don't need a Superman on this team, we just have to get it done together."

That was evident on the court, even though King looked superhuman at times, he couldn't have done it without Bruce Reed adding 12 points and Josh Whitaker and Elisha Justice chipping in with 11. All five starters scored in double figures along with Kenny Manigault off the bench with 12. Justice also dished out six assists and hit three shots from beyond the arc.


Pikeville controlled the glass 51-35 and outshot the Lynx 44.9 to 42.4 percent from the field. The Bears also hit 24-of-30 free throws, compared to a 16-of-25 performance from Lindenwood-Belleville.

After starting the game trading a pair of big blocks on each side of the court, King buried the first basket with a corner three. It was a sign of things to come as he followed with an and-one play off a Whitaker steal and had eight points after four minutes played to give the Bears a 13-6 lead.

Lindenwood-Belleville tried to slow the pace with a timeout, but Justice wouldn't have any of it, promptly hitting a three to put UPIKE up 10. By the seven-minute mark of the half, Whitaker had the Bears up 20 with a fade-away jumper at the elbow.

Five minutes later Whitaker got in on the long-ball act to help Pikeville to its largest lead of the half at 57-32. The Bears went into halftime up 60-36, the most points scored by a team yet in a half at the national championship.

While the first 20 minutes were perfect for Pikeville, the start of the last 20 minutes couldn't have gone worse as the Lynx rattled off eight unanswered points to trim the deficit to 16. The bleeding didn't last long as UPIKE scored six of the next eight points to get it back to 20.

From there it was back to a lot of the same from the first half with the Lynx struggling to stop constant drives to the rim from Manigault and King. With just over six minutes to go Manigault delivered a pair of free throws to make it 91-66 and the Bears could smell the second round.

With 2:12 on the clock, UPIKE reserve Dalton Cornett pushed it across the century mark with a layup to give the Bears a 101-73 lead. It was the 10th time this season Pikeville had scored at least 100 points.

With the win, Pikeville is now 31-2 overall, giving it the school record for wins in a season previously set in 2011 at 30-7.