WINGATE, N.C. --- Wingate University's Ethan Kincaid scored 16 points, including four 3-pointers to lead the Bulldogs to a 63-43 South Atlantic Conference men's basketball victory over visiting Tusculum College Saturday afternoon at Cuddy Arena.

Wingate (14-10, 10-4 SAC) records its fourth straight victory, while sweeping the season series with the Pioneers (8-14, 5-9 SAC).

The Bulldogs utilized runs of 14-0, 15-6 and 15-4 as Wingate finished the contest shooting 50 percent from the floor, while limiting Tusculum to a season-low 28.3 field goal percentage.

Tusculum's Kevin Vest led the Pioneers with his 12 points, while Justin Steigerwald accounted for 11 points in his 40 minutes of play.

"We didn't make shots today and that can be attributed to a couple of things. Wingate had a couple of blocked shots early and that kind of messes with your psyche a little bit and your confidence on your ability to get to the rim and do some thing you typically can do," said Tusculum head coach Michael Jones. "I thought we did some good things defensively against a talented team that is playing very well right now. We held them to 63 points, which I think is a good job. Obviously I'm extremely disappointed we lost, but I feel we have not given up and that we are still focused on trying to get a win every time we go out onto the floor."

Tusculum took an early 6-2 lead to start the game, following four points by Vest and a basket by Nicholas Spinks. Wingate responded with 14 unanswered points over 4:34 to take a 16-6 advantage following a free throw by Jeffrey Parker at the 13:20 mark of the half.

The Bulldogs increased its lead out to 21-8 on a Paidrick Matilus three-pointer at the 10:48 mark. But Tusculum closed the gap with a 9-0 spurt, including five points by Neal Spinks and four straight free throws by Vest as the Pioneers trailed 21-17. Tusculum would cut the deficit again to just two points at the intermission, including seven points by Steigerwald in the final minutes of the first half.

Wingate opened the second half with a 15-6 run in the first 9:08 of the period, including back-to-back three-pointers by Kincaid as the Dogs led 43-31 with 11:52 remaining in the game. The Pioneers cut the Wingate lead to single digits at 48-39 with 8:25 left on the clock, but the Bulldogs closed out the game with a 15-4 run as the Pioneers missed seven of their final eight shots during that timeframe to end the contest.

Wingate's Jamie Vaughn finished the game with 12 points, six rebounds and five assists, whiel Matilus accounted for eight points in the win.

Neal Spinks tallied seven points and four rebounds off the bench, while Tommy Klempin finished with four points and team-high six rebounds in the loss.

Tusculum shot well from the charity stripe on the day, going 16-for-18 (88.9%) from the foul line, going 8-of-9 in each half.

TC will play three of its remaining four regular season contests at home, beginning with Wednesday's 8 p.m. contest against conference front-runner Anderson University.

- TC -