Johnson City Times

Tusculum closed out the first half with a 21-3 run to spark the Pioneers to a 72-59 South Atlantic Conference win at Carson-Newman Wednesday night at Holt Fieldhouse.

Tusculum (9-5, 5-2 SAC) moves into second place in the SAC Mountain Division standings while posting its third consecutive win. TU also records its fourth win in a row over their arch-rivals and hands the Eagles (10-6, 4-2 SAC) its fourth consecutive loss.

Tusculum used a balanced attack as five Pioneers scored in double figures led by Inady Legiste who finished with 13 points and 12 rebounds for his NCAA Division II leading 10th double-double of the season. The 10 double-doubles ties the TU single-season record with former Pioneer greats Ray Christian (1993-94) and James Boshears (1994-95).

The Tusculum quartet of James West IV, Jalen Crowder, Connor Jordan and Kyle Brown all finished with 10 points apiece for the Orange and Black.

C-N's Caleb Bridgewater led all scorers with his 17 points as he went 6-of-8 from the floor with three 3-pointers in his 17 minutes off the bench. All of his points came consecutively in a span of 6:32 in the second half. C-N's Bryant Thomas joined him in double figure scoring with his 13 points.

The contest was a back-and-forth affair early as the lead exchanged hands six times and included six ties

With the score tied 22-22 with 7:27 remaining, the Pioneers scored nine in a row including five points from Legiste as Tusculum led 31-22 with five minutes left in the half.

Thomas slowed down the TU run with a layup, but the Pioneers ended the period with a 12-1 spurt over the final 3:53 to take a 43-25 lead into the locker room.

The Eagles roared out of the break scoring the first eight points of the second half to trim the TU lead to 10 (43-33) with 16:40 remaining.

Legiste connected on a pair of free throws and Jordan buried a key jumper to halt the Carson-Newman momentum and move ahead to a 47-33 lead.

The Eagles scored four in a row to cut the TU advantage back to 10 but a slam dunk by Jacob Hobbs and a Crowder triple sparked a 5-0 run and a 52-37 lead with 12:24 on the clock.

Bridgewater connected on a put-back basket for C-N before Brown drained a triple for the Pioneers to make it a 16-point advantage (55-39) with 11:47 to go.

Bridgewater stayed hot as he buried back-to-back threes to get the Eagles back to within a dozen (57-45) with 9:43 remaining. But Brown answered with his second 3-pointer to start a 15-7 run for the Pioneers as Legiste's layup at the 4:01 mark gave TU its largest lead of the night at 72-52 and put the game away.

The Pioneers finished the game shooting 47.5 percent from the floor as TU recorded 22 assists on its 28 field goals. Crump and Jordan led the way with five assists apiece. The Eagles shot 39.6 percent from the floor and connected on 10 three-pointers.

Tusculum edged the Eagles on the boards (33-31) and held Carson-Newman to a season-low on the boards.

Crump finished the game with nine points, while Hobbs tallied six points, seven rebounds and two assists in the victory.

The Pioneers return home on Saturday when they host SAC Piedmont Division co-leader Wingate (10-5, 5-1 SAC) for a 4 p.m. contest at Pioneer Arena.

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