MARIETTA, Ga. -- After trailing by as many as 13 points in the second quarter, the University of Pikeville women's basketball team turned things around behind 17 points from Jamie Castle to top Life 73-67 on Thursday.
Aundrea Matchen and Mia Greatrex joined Castle in double figures with 15 and 14 points as the Bears won despite being outshot from the field (44-39 percent). UPIKE made up for it with three more makes from 3, five extra points from the stripe and four less turnovers. In just the second half, UPIKE was better from the field at 56-39 percent.
Kennesha Nichols paced Life with 17 points and Shikiya Brown chipped in with 12.
The Bears (14-15, 5-8 MSC) fell behind by as many as 13 points in the first half when it was 28-15 with 3:53 left. After shooting less than 20 percent from the field most of the half, UPIKE finally started to see some shots drop and ended up outscoring the Running Eagles 11-4 the rest of the way to only be down by six at the break.
The lid started to open on the basket with three minutes left in the second, starting with a mid-range jumper by Hailey Anderson, followed by a triple from Kayla Mullins and floater by Castle to give the Bears seven quick unanswered points.
At halftime, UPIKE was being outshot 52-26 percent from the field, but led the game on the backboards, made two more 3-pointers than Life and forced 12 turnovers to help keep things in striking distance.
Life continued to allow UPIKE to even things up in the third quarter as it took just over six minutes for it to tie the score at 40-40 on a nifty layup by Castle. A minute later, Castle gave UPIKE its first lead of the game at 44-42 on a pair of free throws.
It was a 29-14 turnaround for the Bears since it trailed by the widest gap of 13.
Brown made a short jumper early in the fourth to give the Running Eagles a three-point lead, but UPIKE scored the next six points, taking a 55-52 lead on back-to-back jumpers by Rachel Lee and Castle.
The lead swelled to five for the Bears twice over the next five minutes, but it didn't matter with the way shots were falling as it was back to a two-point game at 66-64 with 1:41 on the clock.
After Lucy Stone knocked down the long jumper to cut it to two, Anderson turned the ball over on the next possession, giving Life a chance to tie. But just as quickly as she gave the ball up, Anderson came through with some heroics with the steal off full-court pressure, leading to a fast break layup by Matchen.
Life (11-18, 1-12 MSC) went from having a chance to tie the game to trailing by four with 1:04 to play.
A Nichols three in the final 25 seconds got Life within three points, but that's as close as it got as UPIKE made 5 of 6 free throws down the stretch to preserve the win.
UP NEXT
It's senior day on Saturday as UPIKE hosts Cumberlands for the regular-season finale at 2 p.m. ET in the East Ky. Expo Center. Jamie Castle, Aundrea Matchen and Rachel Lee will be honored prior to tip-off.
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