BUIES CREEK, N.C. – "Creek Madness" begins Thursday when the Big South Championship quarterfinals start at 12 p.m. at Gore Arena.  Campbell (19-11, 12-4) earned the right to host the league tournament after the Camels swept Radford to claim the top seed and the regular season championship.
 
The Camels will face eighth-seeded Hampton (15-15, 9-7) in Thursday's 6:00 p.m. quarterfinal.  Radford (20-10, 12-4) takes on 7th seed Presbyterian (18-14, 9-7) in the quarterfinal opener at  12 p.m. followed by 3rd seed Winthrop (18-11, 10-6) against 6th-seeded Charleston Southern (16-14, 9-7).  Fourth seed Gardner-Webb (20-11, 10-6) meets 5th-seeded High Point (16-14, 9-7) in the 8 p.m. quarterfinal.
 
Semifinals are set for 6 p.m. and 8 p.m. Friday at Gore Arena, while Sunday's title game tips off at 1 p.m. and will be hosted by the highest remaining seed.  Tickets for the quarterfinals and semifinals can be purchased through the Campbell ticket office, and online at www.gocamels.com/creekmadness.  
 
Winners of four-straight and six of their last seven games, the Camels carry their highest seed ever into conference tournament play.
 
Under the direction of Big South coach of the year Kevin McGeehan and led by league player of the year Chris Clemons, the Camels have won 56 games over the past 3 seasons - the most in a three-year span since Campbell joined NCAA Division I in 1977-78.
 
Campbell's 12 league wins are the team's most in conference play since the Camels re-joined the Big South in 2011-12 and the highest total since the 2010 team finished 14-6 to share the regular season title in the Atlantic Sun.
 
Hampton defeated 9th seed Longwood 77-71 Tuesday to advance to the quarterfinals.  Jermaine Marrow scored 28 points (16-16 FTs) and dealt 6 assists, while Greg Heckstall added 17 points and 10 rebounds for the Pirates, who made 30-of-32 from the line and won their fifth game in a row.
 
Campbell is coming off a 64-62 win over Radford Saturday in its regular season finale.  The Highlanders led 10-0 to start the game, but Clemons scored 30 points and Andrew Eudy added 19 for the Camels in a game that included 7 ties and 5 lead changes over the last 10:23.  Jordan Whitfield's free throws with 4.6 seconds remaining and his strip of Travis Fields in the final second provided the winning margin.
 

• Campbell stands 11-3 at home, 7-1 vs. Big South opponents at Gore Arena.  Hampton is 4-10 in road games, 3-5 at Big South foes.
• The nation's leading scorer (30.1), Chris Clemons is 6th on the NCAA Division I all-time scoring list with 3,136 points in 127 career outings.  He has extended his double-figure scoring streak to 112 games, the longest among all active players and 2nd-best in D1 history. 
• Clemons enters Thursday's game 14 points shy of Creighton's Doug McDermott (3150 from 2010-14), who ranks 5th on the all-time D1 scoring list.
• Hampton's Jermaine Marrow is the nation's 6th-leading scorer (25.4).
• On the year, Hampton leads the Big South in team free throw shooting (.770) and blocked shots (3.6), while ranking 2nd in scoring (82.0).  In Big South regular season play, the Pirates topped the league in scoring (83.4), blocks (3.6) and steals (6.6), while rating 2nd in FT percentage (.772) and turnover margin (+2.8).  However, the Pirates surrendered a league-worst 79.3 points in conference games.
• In Big South regular season competition, Campbell led the league in free throw accuracy (.830), turnover margin (+4.1) and assist-turnover ratio (1.6), while rating 2nd in scoring defense (67.5), blocks (3.5) and 3rd in scoring margin (+5.4).
• Hampton's Jermaine Marrow (25.4) and Kalin Fisher (16.2) combine for 41.6 points per game and are the highest scoring teammates in the Big South, just ahead of Campbell's Clemons (30.1) and Andrew Eudy (11.4), who collectively average 41.5.
• On Jan. 26 at Hampton, the Pirates built a 30-21 halftime lead and claimed a 64-58 victory.  Marrow scored 26 points and Fisher 11 for the Pirates, who made 5 more free throws (18-23) than the Camels attempted.  Clemons scored 14 points and grabbed a career-high 10 rebounds, while Andrew Eudy (12) and Jordan Whitfield (10) also hit double digits for the Camels.
• On Feb. 13 in Buies Creek, Chris Clemons set a Gore Arena record with a season-high 48 points to lead Campbell to an 87-84 win. Clemons set a school Division I era (since 1977-78) single-game record for free throws made (22) and attempted (24) and broke the Big South Conference career 3-point mark as well on a night when the outcome wasn't determined until the final seconds.  In a game where the lead changed nine times and the score was tied on 10 occasions, the Camels shot 50.9 percent (27-53) from the floor and knocked down 23-of-28 from the line. Kalin Fisher led Hampton with a season-high 34 points (5-9 threes).  Jermaine Marrow added 20 points – 14 in the final period – plus a game-high six assists.
• Both Hampton and USC Upstate are in the first year as members of the Big South Conference. Hampton left the MEAC, while USC Upstate was formerly a member of the Atlantic Sun.
• Hampton was a member of the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference from 1995-2018 and made six NCAA tournament appearances, most recently back-to-back trips to the "Big Dance" in 2015 and 2016.  Hampton is one of seven 15 seeds to record a victory in the NCAA tournament. The Pirates knocked out 2nd-seeded Iowa State in the 2011 event.
• Four starters return from last year' Hampton team that finished 19-16 overall in 2017-18 and in a 3-way tie for first place in the MEAC (12-4). The Pirates dropped an 84-63 decision at Notre Dame in the 2018 NIT first round.
• Chris Clemons was named Big South Conference men's basketball player of the year, while Kevin McGeehan was selected coach of the year by league head coaches and media members.  Clemons was also named first-team all-conference, Andrew Eudy was a second-team all-league recipient and Cory Gensler was named to the Big South all-academic team.
• McGeehan earned coach of the year recognition after guiding Campbell to its first top seed in a conference tournament since the Big South's inaugural event was held in 1986.  Over the last three seasons, the Camels have won 56 games – the most in a three-year span since Campbell joined the Division I ranks in 1977-78.  Under McGeehan's guidance, the Camels have posted winning records in three-consecutive seasons for the first time in Division I era and CU's 12 Big South victories stand as the most in conference play since the 2010 club finished 14-6 in the A-Sun.  McGeehan is the first Campbell coach to earn his league's top honor since 2010.
• The nation's leading scorer, Clemons is averaging 30.1 points and ranks 2nd in the country in free throws made (221) and 3rd in 3-point field goals per game (4.3).
• Clemons has scored in double figures in 112-straight games, the longest active streak among all Division I players and tied with Danny Ainge of BYU (1979-83) for second all-time.  Clemons has total 13 games of 30-plus points this year, including a season-high 48 vs. Hampton on Feb. 13.  He scored more than 40 points against UNC Wilmington (44), Georgetown (45) and Longwood (41).
• He is the Big South Conference all-time leader in points, field goals (997), 3-point field goals (434), free throws (708) and scoring average (24.7).  Twice named Big South preseason player of the year (2017, 2018), Clemons earned all-league honors for the fourth-straight season, including 3 first-team awards.  The 2016 Big South Freshman of the Year owns 43 school records.
• He was chosen as Big South player of the week seven times during the 2018-19 campaign.
• Clemons is Campbell's first league player of the year honoree since Joe Spinks was selected as the Big South's top performer in 1994.
• The school's career blocked shots record holder (197), Eudy is 24th on all-time Campbell Division I era scoring list (894), while ranking in the top-10 in rebounds, offensive rebounds, and 11th in assists.  He has started all but one game over last three years (100 total).  This year, Eudy ranks second in the Big South in blocks (1.5), 3rd in assist-turnover ratio (1.8), 6th in rebounds (6.7) and assists (3.6) and 20th in scoring (11.7).
• Eudy scored a career-high 30 points in Campbell's Jan. 24 win over Presbyterian and has recorded six double-doubles.  He leads the team in assists, blocks and rebounds, while shooting 50.6 percent from the floor, 41.4 percent (29-70) from 3-point range and 86.6 percent (58-67) from the line.  Eudy capped his regular season with a 19-point (8-8 FT) 3-block effort Saturday in a 64-62 win over Radford that clinched the top seed in the Big South tournament.
• Gensler represented the Camels on the Big South all-academic team for the second-straight year.  A junior from Cary, N.C., he owns a 3.764 grade-point average as a business administration major.  On the floor, Gensler is Campbell's third-leading scorer (8.4), has started 29 games, and committed only 20 turnovers all season.

 
CAMPBELL/BIG SOUTH CHAMPIONSHIP NOTES

• For the first time in the program's Division I history, Campbell is the top seed in its conference tournament.  CU was last seeded in the top two in 1996 when it was the 2nd seed in the Atlantic Sun Championship.
• Campbell is hosting the Big South Championship for the second time in four seasons.
• Campbell has posted a 13-15 record in Big South tourney play and has never lost a semi-final game in five tries (1987, 1989, 1992, 1994, 2017).
• Since returning to the Big South from the Atlantic Sun Conference in 2011-12, Campbell owns a 4-7 record in league championship tournament play.
• Campbell hosted the Big South Conference men's basketball championship in 2016 for the first time in the league's history, which dates to the inaugural 1986 tournament.
• Campbell has made five appearances in the Big South Conference Tournament championship game (1987, 1989, 1992, 1994, 2017).
• The Camels won the 1992 tournament – defeating Charleston Southern 67-53 in the final at Anderson, S.C. – and earned the Big South's first automatic bid in men's basketball in 1992.
• Including Campbell's victory over UNC Asheville in 2017, the seventh seed has defeated the second seed 4 of the last 5 times they have met in the Big South quarter final round.  High Point defeated second seed Liberty in the 2011 quarterfinals, while VMI downed Coastal Carolina in 2012.  The match up didn't happen in either 2013 or 2014 due to divisional matchups before seventh-seeded Gardner-Webb defeated High Point in overtime at the 2015 event.
• In addition to his Big South tournament single-game tournament records for points (51), field goals (18) and three-pointers (8, tied) set in the 2017 quarterfinals against UNC Asheville, Chris Clemons also broke the Big South full tournament marks for total points (140), field goals (48) and three-point field goals (20).
• Campbell's run to the 2017 Big South final marked the 1st time since 2012 (VMI) that the 7th seed reached the Big South title game.  The 7th-seed team also reached the final in 2005 and 2002.

 
2019 Big South Conference Men's Basketball Championship
 
First Round – Tuesday, March 5 – ESPN3 (at higher seed)
Game 1: (7) Presbyterian 106, (10) UNC Asheville 59
Game 2: (6) Charleston Southern 71, (11) USC Upstate 52
Game 3: (8) Hampton 77, (9) Longwood 71
 
Quarterfinals – Thursday, March 7 – ESPN3 (at Buies Creek, N.C.)
Game 3: (2) Radford vs. (7) Presbyterian, 12:00pm
Game 4: (3) Winthrop vs. (6) Charleston Southern, 2:00pm
Game 5: (1) Campbell vs. (8) Hampton, 6:00pm
Game 6: (4) Gardner-Webb vs. (5) High Point, 8:00pm
 
Semifinals - Friday, March 8 – ESPN+ (at Buies Creek, N.C.)
Game 7:  Semifinals – Game 3 winner vs. Game 4 winner, 6:00pm
Game 8:  Semifinals – Game 5 winner vs. Game 6 winner, 8:00pm
 
Championship - Sunday, March 10 – ESPN (at highest remaining seed)
Game 9:  Championship – Game 7 winner vs. Game 8 winner, 1:00pm