GREENEVILLE, Tenn. --- The Tusculum College men's basketball team got a balanced attack, especially from its four seniors on Senior Day as the Pioneers recorded their third straight win in Saturday's 87-72 victory over Mars Hill College at Pioneer Arena.
With its third straight win, the Pioneers improve to 11-15 overall and 8-10 in the South Atlantic Conference to finish in a three-way tie for fifth place in the league final league standings. Mars Hill ends its season at 6-22 overall and 3-15 in the SAC.
Tusculum will be the No. 7 seed in next week's Food Lion SAC Tournament and will travel to nationally-ranked and second-seeded Lincoln Memorial University this Wednesday night at 7 p.m. for a quarterfinal contest in Harrogate, Tenn.
In Saturday's win, senior Kevin Vest led all scorers with 23 points, including his 13-for-14 performance at the free throw line, while freshman Neal Spinks posted season highs with 18 points and eight rebounds, including five on the offensive glass. Spinks also shot 7-of-9 from the floor and blocked two shots.
Senior Justin Steigerwald added 16 points, eight assists and five rebounds in the victory. The eight assists are a season-high for Steigerwald, giving him 381 for his career, which are the fourth most in school history and 11th-best in SAC history.
Senior Anton Tuz posted 11 markers, four rebounds and shot a perfect 5-of-5 from the floor, including three consecutive baskets in a critical 14-6 run at the end of the game.
Senior Tommy Klempin finished with eight points and four rebounds, while junior Nicholas Spinks contributed six points and four assists for the Pioneers. Freshman Daniel O'Conner finished with three points and eight rebounds.
Mars Hill's Sammy Emile, the nation's leading scorer, was limited to 14 points, including 13 in the second half. Emile was held 11 points under his seasonal average, but still wins the league scoring title averaging 25 points per contest, the second-best average in SAC history. His 701 points this year are also the third most ever by a South Atlantic Conference men's basketball player, while finishing with a SAC single-season record 239 free throws made.
Joining Emile in double-digit scoring for the Lions are Cody King (13) and Terrell Harris (10).
Tusculum out-rebounded their cross-mountain rivals by a 46-23 margin, including 18-5 on the offensive glass alone. TC also dominated the paint, out-scoring the visitors 50-18, including 16-2 on second-chance points.
TC also assisted on 22 of its 30 field goals on the afternoon.
In the first half, the lead changed hands three times, including the final time of the contest in the first half as Tusculum went on a 10-2 run, including six straight points by Vest as Tusculum led 29-22 at the 4:33 mark of the period.
TC led by as many as eight (34-26), but the Lions ended the half with a 7-3 run over the final three minutes as the Pioneers led 37-33 at the intermission.
In the second half, Mars Hill whittled the deficit to three points, as King was fouled shooting a three-point and followed by making all three foul shots to cut the lead to 39-36 with 19:21 remaining.
Tusculum bounced its lead back to double-digits at 46-36 following a Vest layup. Emile buried two free throws to trim it back to eight (48-40), but a three-point by Steigerwald gave Tusculum its largest lead of the game to that point at 55-42 with 14:33 left in the contest.
The Lions would battle and cut the TC lead to 63-57 at the 7:31 mark, following a 6-0 MHC run that was capped off by a pair of King free throws.
With TC leading 71-64 with 4:35 left, the Pioneers went on its late 14-6 run to put the contest away.
The senior class of Steigerwald, Klempin, Vest and Tuz were honored prior to Saturday's game.
- TC -
