Henderson, Tenn. – The Bears took on Freed-Hardeman Thursday evening, opening the conference schedule with a 85-65 loss to the Lions.

Devin Collins highlighted the Bears' offensive attack, scoring a season best 23 points on 8-14 shooting from the field. The Marshall transfer was hot from deep, draining seven threes. Collins would round out his stat line with five rebounds.

Korbin Spencer added 11 points, nine of which came in the second half. Elijah Herron and Jacob Brown both finished with 10 points. Bradley Bunch led the rebounding effort with seven, featuring four on the offensive glass.  

As a team, the Bears shot 20-55 from the floor for just over 36%, thwarted by a 10-30 second half effort. A key improvement was the teams' free throw shooting, connecting on 16 of 19 attempts from the stripe for their highest total of the season.

UPIKE took the rebounding advantage 38-32, and finished with eight second chance points. The Lions defense forced 19 turnovers from the Bears, leading to a 24-5 advantage for Freed-Hardeman in points off turnovers.

Collins put the Bears on the board to open the contest, drilling a Bunch-assisted three. Freed-Hardeman quickly answered with a 12-4 run lasting just over five minutes to put the Bears down 14-7 with 14:00 to go in the half.

The Bears would fire back with a 12-5 run over the next five minutes, distributing the scoring to Collins, Brown, Herron, and Teddy Parham Jr. This momentum shift tied the game at 19 with 7:19 to play. Collins added eight points in the final stretch of the first but Freed-Hardeman drained 9-13 shots to take a 41-31 lead into the break.

Freed-Hardeman controlled the second half, limiting the Bears to just 3-12 from deep over a 15-minute span, warding off the comeback. The Bears played the Lions within two points the remainder of the half, led by Spencer.

UPIKE men's basketball aims to bounce back on Saturday, November 19^th in McKenzie, Tenn. The Bears face-off with Bethel starting at 4:00 PM (EST)