GREENEVILLE, Tenn. --- The Lenoir-Rhyne men's basketball team closed out the contest with a 21-6 run as the Bears rallied from a 12-point deficit to record a 67-60 South Atlantic Conference win at Tusculum Saturday afternoon at Pioneer Arena.
Lenoir-Rhyne (14-10, 13-7 SAC) forced 28 turnovers on 19 steals, resulting into 32 points for the visitors. The Bears applied a suffocating full-court press in the second half that resulted into 17 turnovers and 18 points for L-R.
L-R sweeps the season series with the Pioneers (3-23, 2-18 SAC) as the Bears rallied from an 11-point deficit in last month's 71-68 decision in Hickory, N.C.
Allan Jones led the Bears with 15 points off the bench, while R.J. McClure finished with 14 points on 10-of-11 shooting at the free throw line. He also posted three assists and a game-high five steals.
Tusculum's Darius Carter led all scorers with 19 points, while Addison Flynn posted 18 markers, including three 3-pointers. Chase Mounce came a bucket shy from recording his third consecutive double-double of the week with eight points and 10 rebounds. Matt Shown recorded eight points and four rebounds, while Rory McClure and Neal Spinks finished with three points each.
The Bears jumped out to a 19-13 lead at the midway point of the first half following Will Perry three-pointer. Tusculum bolted onto a 19-4 run over a span an eight minute span to take a 32-23 lead with 1:57 remaining in the half. Flynn sparked the run with eight points, including a three-pointer and 5-of-5 shooting from the free throw line. Carter scored the final eight points of the half for Tusculum, including a pair of treys as the Pioneers carried a 35-25 lead into the locker room.
Tusculum shot a sizzling 58.8 percent from the floor, including 5-of-7 from three-point territory, while also gunning 10-of-11 from the charity stripe.
Carter extended his run of 10 straight points with his leaning jumper in the paint to give Tusculum its largest lead of the afternoon (37-25) at 12 with 19:48 remaining.
Mounce slammed home a dunk at the 14:24 mark of the half to give Tusculum a 43-32 lead.
The Bears went on a 10-1 run over the next 5:38, including Will Perry's game-tying three-pointer to knot the score at 44-44 with 8:46 to go.
Tusculum answered with a 10-2 spurt for the next 2:21, including a three-point play by Shown and a Rory McClure three-pointer as the Pioneers extended their lead back to eight (54-46) with 5:38 remaining.
The Bears clamped down defensively from that point forcing six turnovers and limiting Tusculum to shooting 1-for-4 from the floor for the rest of the contest. Lenoir-Rhyne scored 10 straight points, including a pair of R.J. McClure free throws to tie the game at 54-54 with four minutes left. After a TC turnover, Matt Kunz gave the Bears the lead with his jumper in the paint and a 56-54 lead with 3:41 remaining. It was L-R's first lead since the 6:26 mark of the first half.
Mounce tied the game at 56-56 with a pair of free throws, but L-R reclaimed the lead with a Jarvis Perry basket. Flynn responded with his 16-foot jumper to even the game at 58-58 with 2:21 to go.
Following a L-R timeout, Mark Terrell pushed the Bears into the lead again (60-58) with his baseline jumper with 1:08 remaining.
Tusculum committed a pair of critical turnovers on its next two possessions, resulting into two more trips to the foul line for the Bears as they converted 3-of-4 from the stripe to extend the lead to 63-58 with 43 seconds left. Two Carter free throws with 36 seconds left pulled Tusculum to within 63-60. R.J. McClure would connect on four more free throws down the stretch and TC missed a pair of three-point attempts to close out the game.
Tusculum finished the game shooting 54.8 percent from the floor and 80 percent (20-25) from the free throw line. Lenoir-Rhyne finished shooting 39 percent, but closed out the game making five of its final six attempts in the last five minutes during the team's 21-6 run.
Tusculum will be at Anderson on Wednesday at 8 p.m. for the Pioneers' final road game of the season.
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