Pikeville College Goes 2-0 at BB&T Classic

The BB&T Classic has wrapped up after two nights of quality basketball action. The Pikeville College Bears, who hosted the tournament, won both of their games. Mid-Continent University and University of the Cumberlands both went 1-1 during the event and Miami-Hamilton finished winless.

BB&T Classic Final Table:

Pikeville College 2-0
Mid-Continent 1-1
Cumberlands 1-1
Miami-Hamilton 0-2

Day 1 Recap:

- Tony Damron represented AllKYHoops.com on Day 1 of the event. Here is his complete recap of the night:

Game 1

#14 Cumberlands vs. Mid-Continent

This game was a highly contested one. Both teams seemed to play pretty well and the score stayed close down the stretch. This game had 2 coaches that people are probably familiar with. MCU is coached by former Wildcat star Winston Bennett and Cumberlands is coached by Don Butcher, who played for NAIA powerhouse Georgetown College. Both teams put some good talent on the floor. With 28.8 seconds, MCU was clinging to a 4 point lead when #32 from Cumberlands nailed a 3 pointer to cut the MCU lead to 1. After a missed shot on CU's next possession, they had to foul MCU and send them to the line with this game still belonging to anyone. MCU hit their free throws in the final seconds and Coach Bennetts team came away with a 4 point win 78-74. MCU was led in scoring by Donovan Willis with 19 followed by Aaron Pearson with 16. UC was led in scoring by Chad Byron with 21 and Anthony Snell(from Louisville) with 13. This marked Cumberlands first loss of the season.

Game 2

Miami-Hamilton vs. Pikeville College

The nightcap saw 2 teams that are now coached by 2 former NCAA Division 1 players. Coach Melvin Levett previously played basketball at the University of Cincinnati and Pikeville College head coach Kelly Wells played at both Tulsa and Morehead State University. The contest was nearly over as it began as it seemed that Coach Wells team brought their "A" game and came out with some hot shooting. The Bears' Anthony Smith scored the first basket of the game, and at the 16:08 mark of the first half, the Bears found themselves up 11-0. When play resumed, it seemed that the timeout taken by M-H did little to get them back in the game as the Bears seemed to be scoring in various ways. At the 7:34 mark of the first half, the Bears had a commanding 37-9 lead and never looked back. In addition to the scoring in the game, PC was playing suffocating defense causing M-H to use a lot of clock on a lot of possessions. M-H also didn't get any second chances as the Bears rebounding was really impressive. The halftime score was 48-14 in favor of the Pikeville College bears.

The second half resembled the first half with the Bears scoring the first 12 points of the second half and had a lead of 47 points at the midway point of the 2nd half. As the final buzzer sounded, Pikeville College found themselves with a 96-37 win against Miami-Hamilton.

Notes

Coach Wells has 2 kids from the mountains in the starting lineup with Justin Hicks and Ryan Whitaker (both from Hazard)

Justin Hicks was, in my opinion, the player of the game scoring 6 of the Bears first 16 point and ending up with 17 (Didn't play a lot in the 2nd half)

Maurice Thomas,Josh Samarco(in the 2nd half), & Justin Hicks were really impressive from Pikeville

Pikeville put five players in double figures with two turning in double-doubles. Junior Justin Hicks led the way with 17 points. Three Bears - seniors Jonathan Clark, Maurice Thomas and Josh Samarco - had 12 markers apiece. Clark handed out 10 assists while Thomas had 10 rebounds, leading the Bears to a 38-27 edge on the glass.

Day 2 Scores:

Cumberlands 80 Miami-Hamilton 25

The Patriots improved to 6-1 on the season with the win. Travis Harvey led the Patriots with 22 points and Clark Stepp had 9 points and 6 assists. Bernard Cherry also had 6 points and an amazing 15 boards.

Pikeville 87 Mid-Continent 81

Pikeville College stayed undefeated at 4-0 with an 87-81 victory over visiting Mid-Continent University (5-3) in non-conference men’s basketball action Saturday at the BB & T Pikeville Classic. Pikeville outscored MCU, 31-15, in a span of 12:21, to take its widest advantage of the game, 78-62, with 5:05 left in the second half and held on as MCU cut the lead to four with 22 seconds left.

Senior All-conference center Kenny Thomas led Mid-Continent with 24 points, 12 in each half, on 11 of 17 field goals, and also grabbed 9 rebounds, and senior guard Aaron Pearson added 15 points, 3 rebounds, 4 assists and 4 steals.