Marietta, GA – The University of Pikeville men's basketball team won their second road game of the season Thursday night and first conference road game, 83-71 over Life University.

The Bears led for nearly the whole game, only falling behind for a few moments in the first half, before taking control and never looking back. Darius Love picked up the second double-double of his UPIKE career and first of the season in the contest, putting up 16 points and grabbing 11 rebounds. Korbin Spencer also had 16 points while Kenyon Duling (15) and Jacob Brown (10) also scored in double-digits for the Bears. Love, Duling, and Spencer all tied for the team lead with four assists while Taevon Horton recorded a team-high three steals.

This win improves UPIKE to 8-0 this season and 3-0 in the Mid-South Conference. This is the first time UPIKE has started the conference slate 3-0 since the 2014-15 season. The Bears are the lone undefeated team in the conference.

Strong First Half
As mentioned, Life briefly held an 8-7 lead in the first half with 15:17 to play, before the Bears took the lead and never looked back. They used a 24-9 run to make it 31-17 en route to dominating the first half.

They took a 39-23 lead into halftime, shooting 46.4% from the field to Life's 27.6%.

Never Looking Back
The Running Eagles trailed by as many as 26 in the second half but continued to fight till the very end. They cut the lead to just 10 with 3:56 to go at 74-64, but the Bears were able to hold them off.

UPIKE used a small 7-5 flurry to halt any chances of a Life come back and make the score 81-69 before the eventual 83-71 victory.

"We talked all week that we needed to be great against their pressure and we had to bring our defense and rebounding with us" said Bears head coach Tigh Compton. I thought we did all of those things for the majority of the game. Tonight was a great team effort."
 
"It turned into a foul fest down the stretch and we had to fight some adversity on the road. We knew that would be the case coming in. I'm so proud of our guys for finding a way to come out with a big conference road win."

Inside The Box Score
The Bears ended the night at an even 50% from the field and 30% from beyond the arc. The 30% mark from downtown is the highest UPIKE has shot in a conference game so far this season.

The Bears held the advantage in points in the paint (42-24), bench points (32-13), and fast-break points (14-4) over the Running Eagles.

UPIKE has had four or more players score in double-digits in six of their eight games this season.

What's Up Next
As mentioned, the Bears take the court against the University of Tennessee Southern Firehawks on Saturday afternoon in Pulaski, Tennessee at 4:00 p.m. ET. In their last meeting on January 23rd of this year, UPIKE beat them 84-71 in Pikeville.