FRANKFORT, Ky. – No. 1-seed Life (Ga.) scored the last nine points of the first half and third-seeded University of Pikeville never recovered as the Running Eagles collected their first Mid-South Conference Men's Basketball Tournament championship with a 78-63 win on Sunday in the Frankfort Convention Center.

The Bears (26-7) were hunting for their fourth MSC Tournament title, instead they will set their sights on the NAIA National Tournament where they expect to receive an at-large berth on Wednesday night. Play in the national tournament in Kansas City, Mo., is scheduled to start on March 15 at Municipal Auditorium.

Life (Ga.) (22-10) becomes the first non-Kentucky located school to claim the MSC Tournament championship and claims a sweep of both the MSC Regular-Season and Tournament Championships.

Clint Nwosuh led the Bears with a season-high 22 points, including a 6-of-8 showing from 3, and Darrion Leslie joined him in double figures with 19, shooting 9 of 13 from the field. Leslie came up one rebound short of a double-double as UPIKE led Life on the backboards 34-25.

Dalarian Williams paced Life with 21 and Zach Landis added 15. Ivan Benkovich knocked down 3 3-pointers. The Running Eagles outshot UPIKE from the field 55 to 43 percent and made 11 more free throws. The Bears shot just 3 of 11 from the stripe.  

UPIKE led 18-11 six minutes into the first half on a 3 from Clint Nwosuh, but over the next three minutes Life scored eight straight points to grab its first lead at 19-18. It was still close at 32-20 Life with 3:14 until the break before the Running Eagles added another 9-0 spurt to begin to pull away.

Eight points was as close as the Bears could claw back in the second half on a 3 by Nwosuh to open the action. But an 11-0 run later by the Running Eagles they led by 19 and never looked back. Down by 21 at 58-37, UPIKE went on an 8-0 run, but that only got it within 13.

Life put the game away starting at the 8:24 mark of the half when it outscored the Bears 13-1 over a five-minute period to grab its largest lead of 25 points. The Bears outscored Life 14-4 over the last three minutes, but it was too late to complete a comeback.   

-UPIKE-