King Grabs Comeback Victory Over Pikeville

BRISTOL, Tenn. – The jerseys still said King, but the play was pure Princeton.

The go-go Tornado slowed things down – for one possession at least – and used a perfectly executed backdoor cut made famous by the Ivy Leaguers from New Jersey to hit a late go-ahead bucket in an 85-78 comeback victory Monday night over Pikeville College.

“We always try to get that play when it’s like real intense,” said senior Elisha Murray, who hit the layup after point guard Craig McCargo found him on the old-school cut. “We knew they wanted to try to get a steal so we knew they’d jump. It was just a perfect pass from Craig.”

Murray’s layup gave King a 73-72 lead with 3:10 remaining and the Tornado (16-4) pushed the lead to three just seconds later after using their more typical frenetic defense to force a turnover that led to another easy bucket for Murray.

After hitting six 3-pointers and scoring 22 points against Virginia Intermont on Saturday night, Murray struggled with his long-range shot against Pikeville and had only seven points and one field goal before scoring nine of the team’s final 14 points.

“At the beginning of the game, I told everybody however the game’s going, keep fighting,” Murray said.

“We may be up, we may be down, but we’re not going to be out.”

King was in fact down for most of the game, trailing 10-2 out of the gate and 48-43 at halftime. Bears guard Justin Hicks came out on fire, nailing his first four 3-pointers in the game’s opening four minutes.

Hicks, who finished with 15 points to lead the Bears, hit from long range again early in the second half and Pikeville claimed its biggest lead of the game, 55-45, with 16:32 remaining.

The Tornado, though, responded with a 14-0 run as their defense began to clamp down.

“Our team usually has a tendency to stay together,” said King assistant coach Shane Williams. “They usually play one half good and one half bad, so I figured it was time for us to start turning it around. They stuck together. You’ve just got to give the credit to the kids.”

King got a lift throughout the game from its bench, which collectively had 26 points led by junior forward Clarence Smith’s 15.

Smith was active on both ends of the floor, snagging three steals on defense and frequently driving hard to the basket or flipping up a one-handed shot from the low block on offense.

Smith’s aggressiveness sent him to the free throw line 11 times and he knocked down seven of his attempts.

King overall shot 30-for-37 from the line and stayed in the game early on by hitting 17-of-20 free throws in the first half. After hitting a school-record 19 3-pointers on Saturday, King connected on only 5-of-20 shots from deep Monday night.

“We put them at the free throw line way too many times,” said Pikeville coach Kelly Wells, whose team committed 23 fouls in the game. “They shot free throws for about four games – it was a significant amount. And we had a lot to do with that. We just fouled too much.”

The Bears were also undone by 20 turnovers, including multiple miscues down the stretch as King made its final run.

“Tonight was uncharacteristic a little bit with our turnover situation,” Williams said.

Pikeville is ranked 13th in the latest NAIA coaches poll and half of its four losses on the season have come at the hand of the Tornado.

King defeated the Bears 76-67 in Pikeville back in December.

After an 0-2 start to the season, King has won 16 of its last 18 games and Monday’s victory completed a stretch of four wins in eight days for the Tornado.

Sophomore Brian Hewitt provided energy and six assists off the bench, and both of his two field goals were go-ahead buckets for King as the Tornado kept rallying after the sluggish start.

“We pride ourselves on our bench,” Hewitt said.

Nothing, though, makes a coach prouder than to see a play run to perfection.

And the game-turning McCargo-to-Murray hookup was an Ivy League ace.

“It feels good just to set that play up – and see our guys execute it,” Williams said with a grin.

“The kids made it work.”