FRANKFORT, Ky. -- The third-seeded University of Pikeville men's basketball team let No. 6-seed Cumberland hang around for a while, but in the end, it rushed out to a big second-half lead on its way to an 82-62 win in the Mid-South Conference Men's Basketball Tournament quarterfinals on Friday.
UPIKE (25-6) advances to the semifinals where it will face No. 2-seed Georgetown at 8 p.m. ET on Friday at the Frankfort Convention Center.
The Phoenix 's (12-15) last lead may have only been at 13-11 early in the first half, but it trailed by just three with a minute to go before halftime and again got within three nearly four minutes into the second half.
But the last 15 minutes belonged to UPIKE as it outscored Cumberland 11-2 during a five-minute stretch on its way to leads as large as 20 points as the Phoenix quit making shots and couldn't protect the ball.
Jordan Perry led all scorers with 20 points and Rze Culbreath chipped in with 16 as the Bears outshot Cumberland just 45-44 percent from the field, but had a 36-31 lead on the glass. Turnovers cost the Phoenix the most, handing over 23 compared to 11 for UPIKE.
UPIKE did lead by as many as 11 points in the opening half at 28-17 after going on a 12-2 spurt, but the gap didn't faze Cumberland as it answered with a 10-2 run of its own to get within three. Four straight points by the Bears in the final 1:30 helped as a Clint Nwosuh jumper and Michael Lewis layup made it 37-30 at the break.
Leslie opened the second half with a bucket to get the lead to nine, but the Phoenix scored seven of the next eight points to once again see a 3-point game on the scoreboard. But it also prompted a quick 5-0 burst by UPIKE coming from a Marshall Bennett 3-pointer and Lewis lay in to get to a 45-37 cushion.
UPIKE went from leading 40-37 with 16:27 to play to a 51-39 lead five minutes later at the 11:47 mark. The lead only grew from there, reaching its largest point of 20 at 79-59 on a late Rakes reverse layup.
It wasn't all smooth sailing for the Bears though as things got sloppy in the final stages. A 19-point lead was sliced down to 13 in a hurry with less than four minutes left, but a late 10-0 spurt sealed the deal.
-UPIKE-
