PIKEVILLE, Ky. – The Lindsey Wilson men's basketball team fell on the road to No. 14-ranked Pikeville, 71-59, on Saturday afternoon at the East Kentucky Exposition Center.

Dmitry Utolin scored a team-high 12 points for the Blue Raiders (18-10, 5-7 Mid-South Conference) on 4-of-10 shooting. No other Lindsey Wilson player scored in double figures, but six Blue Raiders scored five or more points.

Darrion Leslie scored a game-high 18 points for the Bears (23-6, 8-5 MSC). Clint Nwosuh and Rze Culbreath scored 14 and 10 points, respectively.

Michael Lewis grabbed 18 rebounds for Pikeville. The Bears out-rebounded Lindsey Wilson 32-32, including a 13-7 edge in offensive rebounds.

The Blue Raiders turned the ball over 22 times on Saturday, which led to 19 Pikeville points.

Pikeville dictated the action from the opening tip, scoring the first five points and eight of the first 10 points to open the game. The Bears never trailed in the game.

The Bears successfully held Lindsey Wilson at arm's length, leading by 11 points, 23-12, at the 9:40 mark on a Jordan Perry field goal.

Lindsey Wilson promptly responded with a 10-2 run to pull to within three at 25-22. Pikeville missed four of its five shot attempts and turned the ball over twice, and the Blue Raiders shot 4-of-6 from the field and made two free throws.

Marshall Bennett scored from three-point range on the ensuing possession to make the score 28-22 and spark a 9-0 Bears run.

Lindsey Wilson called for a timeout at 2:31 down 34-22 – its largest deficit of the half. The halt in action stopped Pikeville's run, and the Blue Raiders scored five of the last seven points of the first half to trail only 36-27 at the intermission.

The Blue Raiders out-shot the Bears 50 to 48.4 percent in the first half, but Pikeville mustered nine more field goal attempts due to eight offensive rebounds and 11 Blue Raider turnovers.

Charles Sutton scored nine points to lead all players in the first half. The junior shot 4-of-7 from the field, made his only three-point attempt and grabbed three rebounds.

Clint Nwosuh and Bennett scored eight and seven points, respectively, for the Bears.

Pikeville out-rebounded Lindsey Wilson 19-10 in the first 20 minutes and held a 10-2 edge in second-chance points.

The Bears regained a 12-point lead on a Lewis free throw at 19:19.

Allen Costley found the bottom of the net at 17:31 to narrow the deficit to single digits, 39-30. Nic Brown then scored on the next possession as the Blue Raiders pulled to within seven points.

The Blue Raiders could not capitalize on the newly-found momentum and promptly allowed a 6-0 Pikeville run to trail 45-32 with 14:12 left in the game.

Lindsey Wilson pulled to within nine points on an Utolin basket at the eight-minute mark, but soon found itself down 13 points, 58-45, with 7:27 left in the game.

Down 67-51 with 2:45 remaining, the Blue Raiders went on an 8-0 run, capped by a Bryan Wallace field goal, to make it a single-digit game with 58 seconds left.

Wallace's basket was the last of the game for Lindsey Wilson. Leslie salted the game away with four points in the final minute.

Pikeville out-scored the Blue Raiders 35-32 in the second half, but Lindsey Wilson out-shot its opponent 43.5 to 40 percent in the final 20 minutes.

Lindsey Wilson welcomes Shawnee State (Ohio) to Biggers Sports Center on Thursday. Tipoff is scheduled for 8 p.m. CT.