Men's Basketball Falls to Fisk on Opening Night

OWENSBORO, KY – The basketball season is officially upon us as the men's team hosted Fisk University on Halloween night. The Bulldogs walked away with the 83-77 win as the Bearcats pick up their first loss.

The Bearcats quickly jumped out to a seven-point lead, courtesy of Linkin Lockhart and Damian Garcia. The Bulldogs hustled back taking their first lead of the night on two made free throws. Both teams struggled to get shots to fall in the following four minutes until Fisk broke the scoreless streak. As each team traded points, the score remained knotted at 39 heading into the half. Kabryen Tinson gave the Bearcats a four-point lead following his elbow jumper coming out of the locker rooms. It didn't take long for the Bulldogs to tie the score yet again on a made three with 12-minutes to go. Back-to-back shots for Fisk quickly gave them the seven-point advantage with eight minutes left in the game.

Lockhart got the Bearcats within three of the lead on his made jumper just inside the arc as the clock ticked. BU couldn't pull out the win as Fisk outscored the Bearcats 44-38 in the second half.

Linkin Lockhart led all scorers with 30 points on 10-19 shooting and 4-9 from deep. Damian Garcia scored 17 with eight rebounds while Mike Caswell had seven points and seven assists on the night.

The Bearcats will travel to Evansville, IN to take on UE in their first exhibition matchup of the season. Tip-off is Saturday, Nov. 9 at 1pm CT at the Ford Center.