GEORGETOWN, Ky. -- After falling behind by nine, No. 11 Georgetown outscored the third-ranked University of Pikeville men's basketball team 49-21 over the final 16 minutes on its way to a 93-74 win on Thursday.
UPIKE had built its largest lead at 53-44 with 16:35 to play, but the Tigers erased that deficit with a 13-4 run over the next five minutes before taking the lead for good on Shadell Millinghaus' layup at the 10:39 mark.
Georgetown couldn't buy a free throw, making 11 of 24 shots, but made up for it with 53.5 percent shooting from the field, turning the ball over just seven times and leading the rebounding battle 37-35.
UPIKE, which shot 43.1 percent and made 19 of 27 free throws, got 15 points from Rze Culbreath and a 14 point, 10 rebound double-double from Jayvian Delacruz. Three other Bears scored eight points each.
Millinghaus finished with a game-best 25 points while going 10 of 15 from the field and also grabbing nine boards. Eljay Cowherd chipped in with 19 and Troy Steward had 18, both off the bench.
Georgetown has a way of getting ahead on you quickly in Davis-Reid Alumni Gym, but that wasn't the case in this one.
Instead of playing from behind, the Bears (24-3, 8-3 MSC) made sure they controlled the action early, opening the game with a run-out slam by Darrion Leslie and later taking a 14-7 lead when Da'Rell Domineck had a one-handed slam and layup in transition on back-to-back possessions.
That was with 15:00 on the clock, but the Tigers (22-4, 7-4 MSC) weren't going to stay down long at home.
They outscored the Bears 16-5 over the next five minutes, tying the game at 17 on a Cowherd 3 before taking its first lead on Quan Poinexter's layup at the 10:43 mark.
The lead grew as large as six over the next few minutes as Cowherd continued to heat up with a deep jumper, but the guy in the No. 4 jersey for UPIKE wasn't bad either.
Delacruz made two freebies to get the Bears back within two, then made a nothing-but-net fade away from 15 feet to get it back to a tie game at 25 all.
The rest of the half was an even sprint with Georgetown only taking a two-point lead into halftime. Both teams shot right at 50 percent from the field in the first 20 minutes as the game was primarily played around the rim. UPIKE did give itself a boost at the stripe, making 8 of 10 first-half free throws with Georgetown only making 3 of 9.
UPIKE pushed ahead by nine at 53-44 on two Hawkins free throws with 16:39 to play as it opened the second half on a 13-4 run, but the Tigers outscored the Bears 13-4 over the next five minutes to tie things back up at 57 all.
When Millinghaus finished through traffic with 10:29 on the clock, it gave Georgetown its first lead since it was 44-42 at 61-59. Shortly after that, it was Cowherd finishing through a foul, putting the Tigers up 64-59.
Those few plays seemed to ignite the home team as it went on to outscore the Bears 36-11 over the 11 minutes since it had the nine-point lead, going ahead 80-64 on a Darion Burns layup with 5:31 on the clock.
The closest UPIKE could claw back was 14 before the Tigers closed the game outscoring it 12-7 to finish with the 19-point win.
UP NEXT
UPIKE welcomes Campbellsville to the East Ky. Expo Center at 4 p.m. ET on Saturday.
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