PIKEVILLE, Ky. — A balanced attack from the second-ranked University of Pikeville basketball team led to a 97-55 win over Cincinnati-Clermont in the final game of the Danny VanHoose Classic on Saturday at the East Ky. Expo Center.
Four Bears reached double figures scoring, led by Dmitri Reaves with a season-high 17 points, Macari Brooks with 16, Colt Chapman scoring 13 and Uzonna Akazi finishing with 11. Marshall Bennett finished just shy of a double-double with nine points and 10 rebounds as the Bears outrebounded Clermont 52-32.
Clermont was led by Steffan Green with 16 points off the bench as points were hard to come by with the Cougars shooting just 29.9 percent from the field. UPIKE didn’t have as much trouble, shooting 54.2 percent with a 62-24 advantage in points in the paint.
While UPIKE (5-0) never trailed, it was up by only one point five minutes in at 10-9. But any fears of Clermont hanging around were promptly erased as the Bears went on a 21-2 run over eight minutes to build a 31-11 lead.
UPIKE’s first half advantage eventually reached 27 points just before halftime on a jumper from Michael Lewis, who also blocked four shots, in the paint. From early in the half when the Bears led 12-11, they outscored the Cougars 33-7 the rest of the way.
Clermont (0-1) never got closer than 25 points in the second half, instead spending the bulk of the half trailing by 40 or more points. Christian Leach helped UPIKE to its largest lead when he finished a 3-point play to go up by 47 with less than four minutes to play.
UPIKE, which has won a nation’s best 46 straight games at home, will play its third game in three days at 4 p.m. ET on Sunday against Ohio State-Mansfield at UPIKE Gym.
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