Tusculum College senior guard Kevin Vest scored a career-high 31 points, but Newberry College outscored the Pioneers by a 56-31 margin in the second half to claim an 87-68 victory in South Atlantic Conference men's basketball action Saturday at Eleazer Arena.

Vest broke his previous career high of 25 points set against Cincinnati Christian on Nov. 19, but it wasn't enough to prevent the Pioneers (7-11, 4-6 SAC) from their fourth straight loss, all on the road.

Dondray Walker led the Wolves (11-6, 6-4 SAC) with 23 points and went 5-for-5 from three-point range in the second half, while Matt Dixon flirted with a triple-double by finishing with 12 points, eight rebounds and a game-high eight assists.

Newberry shot 64.5 percent (20-for-31) from the field in the second half, including 8-for-13 from three-point range, to erase a nine-point deficit. Overall, the Wolves were 15-for-35 from three-point range, with six different players making at least one trey.

Jordan Davidson recorded his fourth double-double of the season for the Pioneers with 14 points and 12 rebounds, and Justin Steigerwald also reached double figures with 10 points to go with five rebounds and four assists.

Tusculum, which shot 60 percent (15-for-25) from the field in the first half, fell off to 33.3 percent (8-for-24) in the second half and finished the game at 46.9 percent (23-for-49) as a team. Newberry's two-platoon system allowed its bench to outscore the Tusculum reserves by a margin of 35-6.

"We stopped doing what we did in the first half, plain and simple. It was probably our worst half of defensive execution this season. We did a lot of really good things in the first half, but they started getting open looks," said Pioneer head coach Michael Jones. "Newberry didn't do anything differently in the second half that they didn't do in the first half, or in every half of every other game this season. They shot the same type of shots, but we changed and that wasn't by design at all. I'm upset and disappointed by what happened today on the defensive end."

Vest got off to a red-hot start for the Pioneers, scoring 10 of their first 16 points in the opening seven minutes. The Pioneers led 18-9 after a basket by Steigerwald with 12:55 left in the first half, but three-pointers by Aegir Steinarsson and Tomas Tomasson quickly trimmed the Tusculum lead down to 18-15.

A three-pointer by Dixon tied the game at 23-23 with 6:58 to play until halftime, but Steigerwald answered with a trey and Vest sank a layup followed by back-to-back threes to help Tusculum to a 34-26 lead with 4:08 left in the half.

Tusculum led 37-31 at halftime behind 18 points from Vest on 7-for-10 shooting, including 3-for-4 from three-point land. Walker paced the Wolves with seven points, but Newberry was successful on just 12 of its 31 field-goal attempts in the half as a team and did not attempt a free throw.

Newberry opened the second half with a 10-3 run to take its first lead of the game at 41-40 on a three-pointer by Quayshun Hawkins with 17:31 to play. Tusculum answered with 10 straight points, the final two on a layup by Vest which gave the Pioneers a 50-41 lead with 14:29 remaining.

Trailing 55-50 with 11:48 to play, the Wolves, and Walker in particular, seized control of the game. Walker tied the game with a three with 11:11 left and drilled another with 9:30 remaining to give Newberry the lead for good at 58-55. Walker would hit three more threes in a span of two minutes, including back-to-back possessions, as part of an 11-2 run that increased the Wolves' lead to 75-61 with 3:52 left.

Meanwhile, Tusculum was held to just two field goals in the final 12 1/2 minutes of the game, the second on a layup by Vest with nine seconds left that enabled him to become the first Pioneer to surpass 30 points in a game since Kyle Moore scored 32 against Brevard on Feb. 20, 2010.

"Kevin made the most of his looks today. That's what we've been seeing from him all year. I saw some things out of Jordan Davidson today that we haven't seen recently, and he seems to be coming back into form. But we hit a slide offensively too. At some point early in the second half we put it into park but Newberry kept their feet on the gas," said Jones.

Hawkins came off the bench to score 10 points and dish out four assists in 17 minutes of playing time, and Shamel Akins also reached double figures for the Wolves with 12 points to go with four rebounds and two steals.

The Pioneers will play their first home game in 18 days on Wednesday night when Lincoln Memorial, ranked fifth in the latest NABC Division II poll, visits Pioneer Arena for an 8 p.m. South Atlantic Conference contest.