For the third straight season the Pikeville Bears will travel to Louisville for an exhibition on Wednesday night at 7pm. The game will be televised on WHAS 11. UPIKE is 0-2 in the young series losing 93-57 in 2012 and 74-55 in 2011. The Bears were ranked seventh in the NAIA Coaches’ Preseason Top-25 poll and chosen by the coaches to finish 2nd in the Mid-South Conference. They return just one starter from a 26-7 campaign and 15-5 mark in the MSC.
One guy who will be counted on heavily this year to run the Bears offense is a familiar face to Cardinal Nation. UPIKE senior Elisha Justice was held back last year due to a leg injury but emerged as a contributor late in the season, scoring a season-high 18 points in an MSC Tournament win over Georgetown.
We all know Elisha as “The Bullet” and he played two seasons for Louisville before transferring to Pikeville to play for the hometown Bears. He averaged 2.4 points and 1.1 assists per game as a freshman and 0.9 points for Louisville’s Final Four team in 2011-12. His most memorable games in Louisville are when he scored 12 points with six rebounds against Butler in his first game as a Cardinal and when he played 12 minutes against Marquette contributing two assists during the Cards’ 18-point comeback in the closing 5:44 in the miracle on main.
Elisha is a kid that was raised to always put god and family first. When his grandfather was diagnosed with cancer during his sophomore season at Louisville “The Bullet” decided to move back home to be with his family. He will always be the kid that brought some red into the part of Eastern Kentucky dominated by the blue. My wife was raised in Pikeville Kentucky and during our visits to her neck of the woods those University of Kentucky basketball billboards dominated our drive. But during “The Bullet’s” Louisville run I got to see some red on those billboards and it was glorious. My wife’s relatives know Elisha and his family and it was great to see them all excited about Louisville basketball. They had been all UK before. His pledge to Louisville really made an impact in that rural part of Kentucky. I’m certain that there will be others from that area that follow in the footsteps “The Bullet” laid for them.
It’s always great when one of our own comes home and on Wednesday night “The Bullet” will come back home. Let’s be sure to give him a nice reception. Louisville First, Cardinal Forever!
This game will serve as the final warm-up before things start to count for real on Saturday. This Pikeville group should be a little more challenging than KWC was. The Bears have some guys that could have, or have played D1 basketball. Coach Kelly Wells just won his 150th game as the Bears head coach and they are rolling into Louisville 2-0 on the season. They are a very well coached and competitive group. The Cardinal’s Beak will be covering this game from top to bottom and will have post game photos, videos and interviews. I’m looking forward to seeing the Cardinals progression since the last time out.