BLUEFIELD, Va. – A mismatch physically led to the 14th-ranked University of Pikeville men's basketball team routing Bluefield 83-67 on its home court on Tuesday.
While the Bears had little trouble attacking the rim, leading to a 64.2 percent showing from the field, the Rams (1-1) struggled on offense at just a 38.5 pe rcent clip.a
UPIKE (8-0) made three less 3s than Bluefield, had one extra turnover and only led the rebounding battle by four, but even with all that said, the defensive effort was too much for the Rams to overcome.
Darrion Leslie and Jordan Perry scored 15 points each, Basil Thompson scored 12 and Jayvian Delacruz added 11. Leslie, Thompson and Delacruz grabbed six rebounds each as well, while Da'Rell Domineck grabbed a game-high seven boards.
Stanthony Nelms paced Bluefield with 10 points and Jorge Conception III and David Tripp Chipped in with nine each.
UPIKE never trailed, but its lead was only 12-11 four minutes into the action. That was when it put together an 11-1 run over the next six minutes to break things open. The Rams got within seven after a mini 4-0 spurt, but right when things were looking better, Perry buried a 3 on the other end to get the Bears back ahead by 10.
The lead reached as high as 15 points before halftime when the Bears took a 40-27 lead into the locker room.
Bluefield stayed in catch-up mode for the entire second half, but they weren't able to make up much ground. After falling behind by 19 the Rams went for five straight points to get within 14, but that would be the closest the score would be the rest of the way.
Following a Ram turnover and Delacruz lay in, the lead eclipsed 20 points for the first time at 64-43 with 9:23 to play. Bluefield kept things from getting too out of hand, but the Bears still got a late boost when Mason Blair and Dylan James made back-to-back 3s in the final 1:18 to make the lead 25.
UP NEXT
The Walters Auto Classic starts on Friday with UPIKE hosting Ohio-Chillicothe at 8 p.m. ET in the East Ky. Expo Center.
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