No. 23 Thomas More Loses Mid-South Opener at Cumberlands (Ky.), 72-61

(WILLIAMSBURG, Ky.) — The 23^rd-ranked Thomas More University men's basketball team suffered its first loss of the regular season Tuesday night (December 3, 2019), falling 72-61 to the University of the Cumberlands in its Mid-South Conference opener at the O. Wayne Rollins Center in Williamsburg, Kentucky.

• Thomas More fell into an early hole as Cumberlands opened the game on a 12-0 run until a Ryan Batte (Cincinnati, Ohio/Oak Hills) basket put the Saints on the board with 16:08 left in the first half.
• Back-to-back three-pointers by Keegan Saben (Centerville, Ohio/Centerville) and Reid Jolly (Alexandria, Ky./Campbell County), followed by a Batte field goal, cut the Patriots lead to 14-10 with 14:39 to play in the half.
• Cumberlands went on a 12-2 run late in the half to extend the lead to 33-16 with 3:50 to play, and they took a 39-20 lead into halftime.
• Thomas More shot just 8-33 (24.2%) from the field in the half.

• Jolly scored with 6:09 left in the game to cut the deficit to seven points, making the score 54-47.
• A pair of Batte free throws once again brought the Saints to within seven points at 60-53 with 4:34 remaining, but Thomas More could not close the gap before falling 72-61.

• Thomas More fell to 8-1 and 0-1 in Mid-South Conference play while the Patriots improved to 8-2 and 1-0 in the conference.
• The Saints were 25-59 from the field (42.4%) and 4-13 from three-point range (30.8%), while Cumberlands shot 49.1% from the field and 35.3% from three-point range.
• The Saints outrebounded the Patriots 36-30.
• Batte finished the game with a team-high 23 points on 9-15 field goals and five rebounds.
• Jolly had a double-double with 17 points and 12 rebounds for the Saints.
• Saben scored seven points and added five rebounds.
• Tyrice Walker (Hamilton, Ohio/Summit Country Day) scored eight points for Thomas More off the bench.

• The Saints will look to bounce back on Saturday (December 7) at 2 p.m., when they host Ohio University-Lancaster in a nonconference game at the Connor Convocation Center.