CHARLOTTE, N.C. --- Sean Morgan recorded 19 points and 13 rebounds as the Queens University of Charlotte men's basketball team held on for a 73-71 South Atlantic Conference win over visiting Tusculum College Saturday afternoon at Curry Arena.
With the victory, the Royals (12-8, 9-5 SAC) secure sole possession of second place in the conference, while snapping the Pioneers (4-15, 4-10 SAC) three-game winning streak.
Cory Fagan led Tusculum with 17 points, including five 3-pointers, while Chase Mounce and Matt Shown both posted double-doubles in the loss. Mounce carded a dozen points and 10 rebounds, while Shown notched 11 points and 14 rebounds for his sixth double-double in his last eight outings. Zach Davis recorded a solid outing off the bench with as he shot 5-of-7 from the floor (2-2 3-pt), 3-of-3 from the free throw line for his 15-point performance. Davis also accounted for seven rebounds for the Pioneers.
The Queens duo of Jared Hendryx and Rob Lewis scored 10 points apiece, while Marquis Rankin added nine points, five assists and four steals as the Royals complete the season sweep over Tusculum.
TC led early in the second half 34-31 following a Mounce jumper to start the period. The Royals scored six unanswered points to take a 37-34 lead following back-to-back layups by Morgan.
Queens held a 41-40 lead with 15 minutes remaining and erupted on 10-1 run to take its largest advantage of the afternoon at 51-41 with 12:19 to go. Jacarl Owens made a pair of free throws and Ben Richter knocked down a three-pointer following a Tusculum turnover to take its first double-digit lead of the game.
With the Royals leading 53-43 with 11:30 remaining on the clock, the Pioneers followed with a Javon Price three-pointer and a Fagan layup as TC trimmed the deficit to 53-48 at the 10:33 mark of the period.
Queens responded with seven straight points over the next two minutes to take its largest lead of the contest at 60-48 with 8:22 left.
The Pioneers cut the deficit back to five at 60-55 following a Mason Fox layup with five minutes remaining. But the Royals fended off the TC rally again with a 5-0 run of its own to lead 65-55 with 4:26 to go.
Leading 67-58 with 3:34 remaining, the Pioneers made a valiant charge with six straight points, including a layup from Shown and four consecutive markers by Davis as Tusculum trailed 67-64 with 1:29 remaining.
The Pioneers fouled Morgan as he made one of two free throws to give Queens a 68-64 advantage with 1:11 left. TC come up empty on its next two trips down the floor, but the Royals went cold at the free throw stripe as well.
With 18 seconds left, Kendall Jones connected on a pair of free throws to give the Royals a 70-64 lead. But the Pioneers were not done by any means as Davis converted a four-point play as he was fouled on his three-pointer with nine second left as TC trailed by two (70-68).
Rankin, who had missed two free throws earlier, canned a pair of big tosses with seven seconds left to give the hosts a 72-68 lead.
The Pioneers trimmed the deficit to one at 72-71 when Fagan buried his fifth trey of the game with 1.3 seconds to go. TC immediately fouled Lewis on the in-bounds. He made the first free throw, but missed the second as Mounce came up with the rebound and called timeout with 0.8 seconds to go.
But the in-bounds pass was intercepted in sealing the victory for the Royals.
Tusculum out-rebounded Queens by a 49-42 margin, but the Royals came up with 16 offensive rebounds, resulting into 19 second chance points.
The Pioneers continue their three-game road swing on Wednesday when they travel to Anderson University for an 8 p.m. contest.
- TC -
