GREENEVILLE, Tenn. --- The Lenoir-Rhyne University men's basketball team used a 16-2 run to open the second half and held off a late Tusculum College rally as the Bears defeated the Pioneers 78-72 Wednesday night at Pioneer Arena.

Lenoir-Rhyne (8-1, 4-1 SAC) records its fourth straight victory at Pioneer Arena, while handing Tusculum (6-3, 2-2 SAC) its first home loss this year snapping a four-game home winning streak. The Bears are ranked fourth in this week's D2SIDA Southeast Region Media Poll, while the Pioneers were receiving votes following Monday's upset victory over No. 7 nationally-ranked King University.

Keenan Palmore led L-R with 21 points, while Reed Lucas added 18 markers, including 10 in the second half.

Tusculum senior Darius Carter led all scorers with his 26 points, shooting 10-of-16 from the field, including 3-of-4 from three-point territory.

TC's Javon Price finished with a dozen points, including a pair of three-pointers to extend his personal streak of 28 straight outings with a trey. Chase Mounce finished with 10 points and six rebounds as he was plagued with foul-trouble throughout the night. Matt Shown added seven points and hauled in a season-high 11 rebounds.

Tusculum used an 11-2 run in the first half to take a 26-16 lead with 9:35 left in the period following a Zach Hartle three-pointer.

Lenoir-Rhyne answered with a 16-5 spurt of its own to overtake the Pioneers 32-31 following a steal and layup from Palmore.

The Pioneers responded with back-to-back buckets from Price to go ahead 35-32. But a three-pointer from Lucas and a Rob Noyes layup and the Bears were back on top 37-35.

Carter scored on a layup with 58 seconds left, but Palmore made a driving layup with four seconds remaining as Lenoir-Rhyne took a 39-37 lead heading into the locker room.

In the second half, the Bears erupted on a 16-2 spurt to take a 55-39 lead with 14:36 left in the game. The Pioneers faced a similar plight on Monday as TC trailed by 21 points in the second half to King and rallied to knock off the seventh-ranked Tornado.

Tusculum made such a charge again using a 15-5 run to trail the Bears 60-56 with 7:44 to go following a Zach Davis three-point play.

Lucas later posted a three-point play of his own to extend the L-R lead to 66-58 with 5:13 remaining.

The Pioneers had a chance to cut the deficit to a single possession. Trailing 66-62 with 3:41 to go following a Mounce layup on a designed play out of a time, the Pioneers came up with a defensive rebound. But TC committed back-to-back turnovers on its next two possessions and Lucas buried a huge three-pointer to lead 69-62 with 2:48 left.

The Bears made nine of its last 12 free throw attempts as the visitors held on for the victory.

Tusculum out-shot (44.6%-43.8%) and out-rebounded Lenoir-Rhyne (40-37), but the Bears forced 17 turnovers, resulting into 14 points. L-R also owned a 15-6 advantage in fast-break points and a 9-6 edge in second-chance points.

Tusculum returns to action on Saturday as the Pioneers travel to Coker College for a 4 p.m. contest.

Carter could achieve a personal milestone on Saturday as he needs 21 points to become the 23rd player in program history to score 1,000 points in their career. Carter has scored 979 points at Tusculum, including a team-best 16.4 points this year.

- TC -