King College sweeps Pikeville on the hardwood

King College overcame Pikeville (Ky.) College for an 85-77 victory Monday to complete the season sweep over the nationally ranked NAIA Division I squad as four Tornado players scored in double-digits.

King improved to 16-4 and Pikeville, at No. 13 in the latest NAIA Men’s Basketball Coaches poll, went to 19-4. Half of Pikeville’s losses have been to King. The Tornado won the first meeting Dec. 2, 76-67, in Pikeville.

Mark Dockery (Nickelsville, Va.) paced King with a game-high 17 points. He was a perfect 7-for-7 at the free throw line with a team high seven rebounds. Elisha Murray (Ft. Myers, Fla.) poured in 16 including seven free throws. Clarence Smith (Nashville, Tenn.) and Craig McCargo (South Boston, Va.) scored 15 and 14 points, respectively.

In all, King was 30-for-37 (81.1 percent) at the free throw line. The 30 free throws are the most King has made in a game this season, four more than the Jan. 4 game at Emory & Henry (Va.) College.

The first two minutes belonged to Pikeville as the visitors jumped out to a 10-2 lead. Stephen Kite (Atlanta, Ga.) put King in front 19-18 with his basket with 13:23 left in the half. Pikeville answered and regained the lead, but J.T. Blair (Knoxville, Tenn.) hit a three to tie things at 22. King watched as the Bears scored six straight and eventually led by as many as seven in the final 12:46 to take a 48-43 lead to the halftime break.

Pikeville pushed the advantage out to 10, 55-45, in the first three minutes of the second half. King then scored 14 in a row, with six from Smith to take the lead. The lead swapped hands one more time and Pikeville led 66-59 with 9:15 left.

The Tornado stormed back and Brian Hewitt (Lexington, Ky.) put King in front 71-70 with his basket as 5:07 was left in the contest. The lead changed possession two times and Murray put King in front for good with 3:10 to go. The first of his two straight layups made the score 73-72 and King eventually led by eight, 82-74, before the end of the game.

Maurice Thomas posted a double-double with a dozen points and dozen rebounds. Jonathan Clark chipped in with 14 points as he was a perfect 10-for-10 at the free throw line. The Bears were led by Justin Hicks and his 15 points and all the buckets were behind the 3-point line.

King head coach George Pitts improved to 13-5 against teams from Kentucky including winning the last five such games. The Tornado also are perfect 4-0 against Pikeville under Pitts’ direction.

From the field, King was 25-for-56 (44.6 percent) and Pikeville was 27-for-56 (48.2 percent). Pikeville had 10 three pointers and King made five. The Bears were just 13-for-15 (86.7 percent) at the line.

King travels to Montreat (N.C.) College for an 8 p.m. game Wednesday. The Tornado has a six game winning streak against Montreat over the previous two seasons.