PHOTOS
CAMPBELLSVILLE, Ky. -- Lindsey Wilson College men's basketball made 12 of 14 free throws inside the final 90 seconds to ice a 65-56 win at Campbellsville University on Tuesday night at the Powell Athletic Center.
Until the free throw binge -- which pushed the Blue Raiders out to as much as a 12-point lead -- neither team posted anything higher than a five-point advantage in the back-and-forth affair.
The game concluded with seven ties and five lead changes.
Trailing 25-21 with 3:25 left in the first half, No. 11-ranked Lindsey Wilson (5-1, 2-1 in the Mid-South Conference) closed the half on a 7-0 run to take a three-point lead into the break. The Blue Raiders never trailed in the second half.
Campbellsville (4-1, 2-1 in the MSC) closed within a single point five times in the second stanza and even tied the game at 47-47 with 5:51 left following Addison Smith's basket in the lane. Smith finished with 11 points -- one of four Tigers to post double digits in the game.
The Blue Raiders responded with four straight points and eight of the next nine points to pull away from the Tigers.
Lindsey Wilson's Wesley Hanspard scored six of his season-high 19 points during what turned out to be the decisive run.
With the cushion, Lindsey Wilson needed only to make its free throws to secure its third straight win over Campbellsville.
In the first half, the Tigers hit eight of their first 14 shot attempts to lead 18-16 through the first 10 minutes of the game. Campbellsville's Vernon Payne helped extend that lead to 22-17 with six minutes left in the half as he scored eight straight points for the Tigers. Payne ended the night with 12 points.
But after the Campbellsville hot start, the Lindsey Wilson defense -- who is leading the MSC in scoring defense, opponent's field goal percentage and opponent's 3-point defense -- intervened.
Over the final 30 minutes of the game, Campbellsville connected on 14-of-43 (32.6 percent) shots including making just 26.3 percent (5-of-19) from beyond the 3-point arc for the game. The Tigers had been shooting 40 percent from deep as a team entering the game.
Lindsey Wilson finished shooting 44.7 percent (21-of-47) from the field as a team, but ultimately it was its 19-for-26 shooting from the charity line that proved to be the difference.
Lindsey Wilson's Kalen Kimberland joined Hanspard with 19 points while Darren Ballou chipped in 10 points. Daronte' Clark finished with eight points -- thanks to 6-for-6 shooting from the free throw line.
Campbellsville's Jordan Myers scored a team-high 15 points and Darius Clement added 10.
Lindsey Wilson returns to action at 8 p.m. CT on Friday, Nov. 23 against Belhaven (Miss.) University in the second game of the Lindsey Wilson College Classic. Campbellsville and Freed-Hardeman (Tenn.) University plays in the opener at 6 p.m. CT at Biggers Sports Center.
