ANDERSON, S.C. --- Kendall Patterson hit his sixth three-pointer of the night with 35 seconds left to lift Tusculum College to a 70-66 victory over Anderson University in a South Atlantic Conference men's basketball game Wednesday night at the Abney Athletic Center.
Patterson finished with a game and career-high 22 points for the Pioneers (10-10, 6-9 SAC), who won for the first time in seven all-time visits to Anderson by overcoming an 11-point halftime deficit to the Trojans (5-16, 3-12 SAC), who lost their eighth consecutive game.
Darius Carter chipped in with 21 points for the Pioneers and Zach Davis had 13 points and nine rebounds while starting in place of Chase Mounce, who missed the game due to illness. The win allowed Tusculum to move past Mars Hill into the eighth and final playoff position in the SAC standings with seven games remaining in the regular season.
Tre' Fields led the Trojans with 19 points, including a three-pointer with 49 seconds left that temporarily gave the Trojans a 66-65 lead. Maurice Howard added 12 points and eight rebounds, but missed the potential tying three-pointer with eight seconds to go. Lex Davis just missed a double-double for Anderson as he finished with nine points and a game-high 10 rebounds.
Patterson, whose previous career high of 21 points was set against Belmont Abbey in November, 2014 while he played at Barton, shot 8-for-10 from the field and 6-for-8 from three-point range. He added five rebounds, three assists and a steal while playing 30 minutes.
Carter connected on 7-for-12 from the floor for the Pioneers, including a pair of three-pointers, and was 5-for-6 at the foul line. With his 21 points, Carter moved ahead of Bob Sohas (1,166 points from 1970-74) into 14th place on the Tusculum career scoring list with 1,186 points.
After trailing 39-28 at the half, the Pioneers chipped away at the Trojan lead and finally tied the score at 60-60 on a steal and layup by Patterson with 4:19 to play. A three-pointer by Fields restored the Anderson lead at 63-60 with 3:03 left, but Carter cut the margin to one with a basket on the Pioneers' next possession.
Following several exchanges of missed shots, Patterson hit his fifth three of the night with 1:35 left to put Tusculum back on top 65-63. Anderson then took advantage of several offensive rebounds to set up Fields for a three-pointer that put the Trojans back in front for the final time, just ahead of Patterson's go-ahead three with just over a half-minute to play.
After Patterson gave the Pioneers the 68-66 lead, Davis missed a tying jumper and Carter hit one out of two at the line for a 69-66 Tusculum lead with 13 seconds left. Howard then misfired on a tying three, and Cory Fagan made the second of two foul shots with just under four seconds left to set the final margin.
As a team, Tusculum shot 6-for-13 from three-point range in the second half and finished the game at 9-for-25 from beyond the arc. Anderson went 9-for-21 from long range, with Fields accounting for six of the makes and 13 of the attempts.
A three-pointer by Patterson and two free throws from Davis helped the Pioneers jump to an early 8-3 lead, but Fields followed up a three-pointer with a four-point play to give the Trojans a 10-8 lead with less than four minutes gone in the first half. A layup by Patterson tied the game at 14-14, but the Trojans went to work on building a lead that grew to as many as 12 points at 32-20 following a layup from Howard with 5:09 to play in the half.
Anderson led Tusculum 39-28 at halftime as Fields led the Trojans with 10 points in the first half on 3-for-7 shooting from three-point range, while Davis and Fagan shared the team lead for the Pioneers with seven points apiece. Davis added six boards in the half for Tusculum, which was outrebounded by Anderson 21-18 in the half. As a team, the Pioneers shot 34.5 percent (10-for-29) from the field in the half while the Trojans connected on 16-for-33 from the field (48.5 percent), including 6-for-12 from three-point range as a team.
Tusculum came out in the second half and scored 10 unanswered points to cut the deficit to one at 39-38. Carter scored six points during the run, including back-to-back layups which cut the margin to a single point. Anderson would eventually build its lead back up to nine points at 58-49 following a layup by Alex Greisen with 7:38 to go, but an 11-2 run from the Pioneers was capped by the tying three-pointer from Patterson with just over four minutes remaining.
Fagan finished with eight points and four rebounds for the Pioneers in 30 minutes of action. Greisen led the Trojans off the bench with nine points and seven rebounds, while Marquez Fisher had five points, six rebounds and three blocked shots in just 16 minutes of playing time for Anderson.
Tusculum will return to the road Saturday afternoon at Lenoir-Rhyne in a key SAC matchup. The Pioneers lost 78-72 to the Bears at home on December 16. Game time is scheduled for 4 p.m.
- TC -
