PIKEVILLE, Ky. – The No. 15-ranked Lindsey Wilson men's basketball team fell to No. 2 Pikeville (Ky.) 98-63 on Thursday night in the Mid-South Conference road opener at the East Kentucky Expo Center.

The Blue Raiders (11-4, 3-1 MSC) fall for the first time in conference play this year, while Pikeville improves to 15-1 and 2-1 in the MSC with the win.

Lindsey Wilson committed a season-high 22 turnovers, and the Bears were quick to punish the Blue Raiders for their mistakes as they turned those turnovers into 31 points. Pikeville dominated on the boards, outrebounding Lindsey Wilson 40-25 on the night.

The Blue Raiders tried to hang around and run with Pikeville in the early parts of the opening half, but the athleticism and height of the Bears caused problems on the offensive and defensive end for Lindsey Wilson. The Bears drove right into the heart of the Blue Raider defense and either put up a layup attempt or kicked the ball out to the open shooter. On the defensive end, Pikeville used their length in a zone defense to keep Lindsey Wilson from building any momentum in penetrating the paint.

Lindsey Wilson was unable to slow down the fast paced, run-and-shoot Pikeville offense as the Bears began pulling away. A Macari Brooks free throw pushed the Bears' lead to double digits at 32-22 with 7:05 to play in the half, and Pikeville poured in 21 more points in a seven-minute span as they led 53-33 at the half.

The Blue Raiders had a successful first half shooting, hitting 13-of-26 shots for 50 percent, making 4-of-9 attempts from beyond the arc, but 13 costly turnovers turned into 19 points for the Bears. Pikeville shot the lights out in the opening half, making 18-of-31 shots for 58.1 percent, including a 7-for-10 mark from beyond the arc.

The same trends continued in the second half as Pikeville scored the first eight points of the second half and never looked back. The Bears continued to play outstanding perimeter defense forcing the Blue Raiders to settle for tough shots from beyond the arc, while at the same time collapsing on any player attempting to penetrate in the paint and forcing them to adjust their shot or kick it back out.

Lindsey Wilson was unable to take any significant chunks out of the Pikeville lead as the Bears cruised to the 98-63 victory.

Lindsey Wilson managed a 43.4 field goal percentage and a 27.8 mark from beyond the arc, while Pikeville hit 56.3 percent of their shots and made 13 shots from three-point range.

Charles Sutton finished with 14 points in the loss, followed by Dmitry Utolin's 12. DJ Lambert scored nine points and Pepper Ben Ofokile provided quality minutes off the bench, finishing with four points.

Pikeville was led by KK Simmons' 20 points with Christian Leach adding 18.

The Blue Raiders return to action on Saturday when they head to Cumberlands (Ky.) on Saturday for the second contest of their four-game road trip.