Jalen Coates finished two points shy of his career high with 25 points to lead all scorers. The Tigers (12-1) finished with Tim Coleman, Hagen Tyler and Andrew Smith all tallying 15 points, while Smith recorded a double-double with a career-high 15 rebounds. James McCloud led the Trojans (9-4) with 16 points off the bench and the Taylor bench put up 43 of the teams 69 points.
Taylor started the game with an early three-pointer from Keaton Hendricks, but Campbellsville rattled off the next 15 points forcing the Trojans into a pair of timeouts in the first four minutes of the ball game. Taylor made its first basket of the game, but missed the next four, while the Tigers missed on their first shot and then made their next six.
After falling behind by 12 points in the early going, the Trojans scored four-straight points to cut the deficit to 15-7. Campbellsville then went on a 13-1 run to takes its first 20-point lead of the ball game with 7:48 left in the first half after a free throw from Jalen Coates.
The Tiger run was pushed to 17-1 and Campbellsville held the Trojans without field goal for 8:37. The dry spell was broken for Taylor following a lay in from McCloud at the 5:32 mark in the half.
Campbellsville took its largest in the first half with 3:15 to play after an Adam Stanford free throw put the Tigers on top, 40-13. Campbellsville cooled off over final six-plus minutes as it made just three of its final 10 shots in the first half as the Trojans cut into the deficit at the half. The Tigers held a 42-21 advantage at the intermission.
To finish the first 20 minutes of play, Campbellsville made 16-of-32 shots from floor and shot at a 41.7 percent clip from beyond the arc. Taylor shot just 29.6 in the first half making only eight of its 27 field goal attempts and converted on 2-of-9 three-pointers.
Taylor came out strong in the second half hitting three of its first four shots – all from three-point land – to spark a 9-3 run forcing the Tigers to call an early timeout with a 45-30 lead. Out of the timeout Campbellsville scored the next 10 points to stretch its lead back out to 25 points.
Following the 10-0 run from the Tigers early the second half, neither team sustained a long run for the remainder of the contest. The closest the Trojans came to the Tigers in the second half was 15 points following its early 9-3 run. Taylor had a chance to pull within 15 points, but James McCloud missed a free throw. Campbellsville tallied the next four points to regain a 20-point edge.
The Tigers capped of the night and walked away with an 86-69 victory.
Both offenses were clicking on all cylinders in the second half as Campbellsville shot 61.5 percent from the floor and Taylor made 17-of-34 shots in the half. The Tigers finished the game shooting 55.2 percent, which marks the seventh time this season they have shot at least 50 percent from the floor.
Campbellsville rounds out the Lindsey Wilson Classic on Saturday afternoon at 3 p.m. ET against Toccoa Falls College.
