PIKEVILLE, Ky. -- Rze Culbreath had just 10 seconds to drive the length of the court and make sure it was a happy senior day for six of his teammates. It ended up being plenty of time.
The junior hit the gas with about five ticks left and sank a layup over two defenders from ninth-ranked Cumberlands to give the 14th-ranked University of Pikeville men's basketball team a 67-66 win on Saturday at the East Ky. Expo Center.
It was a proper sendoff for Trey Rakes, Michael Lewis, Daniel Afeaki, Richard Freeman, Clint Nwosuh and Marshall Bennett who all played their last game at the Expo. Now the focus for them and the rest of the Bears shifts to the postseason which begins on Friday with the Mid-South Conference Tournament in Frankfort.
The bracket is scheduled to be released on Saturday night. UPIKE (24-6, 9-5 MSC) will be the No. 3 seed and is expected to face No. 6-seed Cumberland (Tenn.) at 8 p.m. ET on Friday at the Frankfort Convention Center.
Darrion Leslie led all scorers with 19 points for UPIKE while also grabbing 10 rebounds for a double-double. Rakes chipped in with 17 points and hit four 3s.
Eddie Tornes paced Cumberlands (22-7, 8-6 MSC) with 17 points off the bench, followed by Bernard Samuel with 12.
It was a night where UPIKE had to find a way to win despite being outshot from the field 51 to 38.3 percent. Hitting three extra 3-pointers and four more free throws helped, as did leading on the glass 37-31.
The Patriots also simply had a big-time performance in the first half, shooting 57.1 percent to outscore UPIKE 37-24 by halftime. But the Bears flipped the script in the second, outscoring Cumberlands 43-29 to claw back from a deficit as large as 12 points early in the half.
HOW IT WENT DOWN
UPIKE led by four at 15-11 nine minutes into the game on a 3 by Rakes, but the Patriots followed that with a 16-1 run over the next five minutes to go up by 11. Just before the break, Leslie's shot was blocked and Samuel took off for a layup to put the Patriots up by 13 at halftime.
But that was also the largest lead of the game for the Patriots as they were outscored 23-10 over the first 10 minutes of the second half to see the game tied at 47 on a hook shot by Afeaki with 10:49 to play. After a stop on the next trip, Leslie took off for a fast-break layup to give UPIKE its first lead of the half.
From there it was anyone's game as the score was tied six more times before the final buzzer. UPIKE briefly led by four at 58-54 on a Culbreath 3 - his first field goal of the game - with 6:13 on the clock, but the Patriots scored six of the next seven points to regain the lead.
Tornes finished at the basket to give Cumberlands a 66-65 lead with 11 seconds left, but that was before Culbreath went coast-to-coast. Tornes got a good look from near half court before time expired and just missed after hitting the rim.
-UPIKE-
