GREENEVILLE, Tenn. --- Kyle Moore scored 20 points to lead third-seeded Tusculum College to a 64-53 win over No. 6 Wingate University in a quarterfinal round game of the 2009 Food Lion South Atlantic Conference Men's Basketball Tournament, Wednesday night at Pioneer Arena.

With the victory, the Pioneers (19-9) advance to Saturday's semifinal and will face No. 2 seed Newberry College at 8 p.m. from the Catawba Valley Community College Arena in Hickory, N.C. Wingate ends its season at 12-16.

Moore did his damage from the charity stripe as he went 12-for-13 from the free throw line, including 8-for-8 in the second half. For the first time in 32 games, Moore was shutout from three-point territory going 0-for-5. The last time he failed to make a trey was against Wingate last season in Greeneville.

Josh Bennett scored 14 of his 18 points in the second half as he finished the shooting 8-for-14 from the floor. Ryan Troutman added nine markers and a game-high 11 assists in the win.

Wingate's Kenny Villines and Rosco Turner accounted for 10 points each, while DeMario Mattox and Tommy Coles tallied nine and eight points, respectively.

Wingate scored the first five points of the game and led throughout most of the first half, taking a 28-25 lead at the intermission.

In the second half, trailing 32-28 in the opening moments of the period, Tusculum went on an 18-4 run, including three-pointers by Taylor Hobbs and Jimmy Boone and 10 points by Bennett as TC led 46-34 with 12:48 remaining in the game.

TC would continue to maintain its advantage over the next nine minutes and would lead 52-41 with 5:13 left. The Bulldogs went on a 5-0 spurt, including two free throws and a bucket by Turner and Jamie Vaughn's free throw with 2:57 left cut the TC lead to six (52-46).

But that's as close as Wingate would get as the Pioneers went 12-for-12 at the free throw line in the second half, including 10-of-10 in the final two minutes to cap the victory.

Moore still sits at 88 three-pointers this season, one shy of the all-time SAC mark held former Pioneer Bobby Ewing (2005) who hit 89.

This marks Tusculum's first trip to the SAC Tournament semifinals since 2006 and fourth overall. This will be the first time Tusculum and Newberry have ever met in the semifinal round.

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