Cumberland took to the road and traveled west to the Belmont Christian Academy Christmas Invitational Tournament in Morgantown this past weekend. The Blazers struggled in Friday night’s game with Louisville but came back for a close loss to Faith and a win against Valor on Saturday.

“We struggled out of the gate Friday night,” said head coach Justin Hensley after the tournament ended with a win against Valor on Saturday afternoon. “Louisville has a good team and did well overall in the tournament. We had a team meeting Saturday morning and really discussed the need to turn up the intensity in our game. The guys responded and played their tails off against Faith but we struggled to make free throws and it cost us the game. The score of that game looks worse than it was. We got it down to within 5 several times.”

Louisville came out strong Friday night and outscored Cumberland 31-13 in the first quarter and never looked back. Louisville had three players score over 20 points (Hartlace, 27; Dineen, 23; Graves, 23) and only had one player out of the 10 man roster that didn’t score. The Blazers went on to lose 96-67. Tanner Pilarski led the Blazers with 32 points while Ben Pruette scored a season high 23.

Cumberland and Faith matched up well for the first game on Saturday for the Blazers. Cumberland kept it tight in the first trailing only by two and trailed by eight at the half. Even with a strong run in the second half, Cumberland couldn’t make up the deficit and ended up with a 74-60 loss. The Blazers went 13-36 from the free throw line in this game. Shane Jung led the Blazers with 26. Tanner Pilarski pitched in 14 and Ben Pruette 11. Michael Jenkins led the Defenders with 34.

Valor presented little resistance for Cumberland on Saturday afternoon. Valor presented a young, inexperienced team that allowed the Blazers to get ahead early and keep the lead throughout the game for a 71-32 final score. All Blazers scored in the game with Shane Jung leading the charge with 25 points. Cameron Mitchell scored a season high 13 while Ben Pruette and Tanner Pilarski pitched in 12 and 11 respectively.

Tanner Pilarski was named to the All-Tournament team.

Cumberland (4-8, 2-5) will take the week off for Christmas and prepare to travel to the Buckhorn Lake Christmas Classic on December 27-29. The Blazers will tip first in the classic against Piarist (KHSAA) on December 27th at 1pm.

Cumberland Homeschool Athletic Teams, Inc is a 501c3 nonprofit organization designed to provide opportunities for K-12 student athletes to participate in competitive athletics principally in the Cumberland Valley region of Southeast Kentucky.