GREENEVILLE, Tenn. --- Trenton Gibson scored a game-high 23 points and connected on a pair of free throws with 14.2 seconds remaining as the Tusculum men's basketball team held on for a 78-75 South Atlantic Conference win over Mars Hill Wednesday night at Pioneer Arena.
The Pioneers (8-4, 8-4 SAC) remain undefeated at home this season while the Lions (1-6, 1-6 SAC) drop their fifth in a row to TU in Greeneville.
Gibson came within three assists of his second career triple-double as he added 10 rebounds and seven assists in his 39 minutes of action. He went 6-of-12 from the floor, 3-of-4 from three-point territory and a perfect 8-of-8 at the free throw line including 6-of-6 in the second half.
TU also got 18 points off the bench from James West IV, who was seeing his first action since being injured at Lincoln Memorial on Jan. 2. In his 28 minutes, West went 7-of-15 from the field including 4-of-8 from beyond the arc. He also chipped in four assists and two rebounds.
Sophomore Justin Mitchell added career-highs with 15 points and eight rebounds, while reigning SAC Player of the Week Inady Legiste pulled down double-digit rebounds for a second straight game. He finished with eight points including a pair of back-to-back buckets in the final minutes of the contest.
Mars Hill got a pair of 20-point performances from the duo of Austin Gilyard and Javonte Cooke. Gilyard rained in four 3-pointers, while Cooke added a pair to go along with his six rebounds. Isayah Johnson contributed 13 points and five rebounds in the loss.
The Pioneers used a 13-2 lead late in the first half to jump out to its biggest lead of the game at 42-26 following a West triple with 1:30 remaining before halftime. MHU closed out the break with 6-2 spurt including a lay-up by Nassyr Daniel just before the buzzer as TU led 44-32 at the intermission.
The Lions continued their run into the second period scoring the first six points of the half including a bucket by Reggie Wright to trim the deficit to 44-38 with 18:27 left in the contest.
The Pioneers bumped the lead back out to nine with a Gibson three-pointer as TU led 51-42 with 16:08 remaining. Gibson later added two more free throw makes as the Pioneers led 53-44 at the 13:45 mark. But MHU got a Cooke trifecta and West responded with a jumper for Tusculum. Trey Belin buried a three-pointer of his own as the Lions trailed 55-50 with 12:09 on the clock.
Both teams came up empty on back-to-back possessions before Gibson scored five straight with his three-pointer and two free throws as Tusculum led by double figures again at 60-50 with 10 minutes to go.
Gilyard made an outside jumper and TU's Brandon Mitchell connected on a layup for the Pioneers. Johnson made a driving layup before West buried another three-pointer as Tusculum led 67-56 with 7:43 remaining.
Gilyard answered West's triple with one of his own and Johnson put home a slam dunk at the 6:21 mark as the TU lead twindled to 67-61. Justin Mitchell hit a three-pointer on the TU fast-break as the Pioneers led 70-61 with 5:37 left.
The Lions made their move going on a 7-0 run over the next 2:16 including five straight points from Gilyard as the once 16-point lead was down to two (70-68) with 4:05 remaining.
After a Tusculum timeout, Legiste made a reverse layup, but Cooke countered with a driving layup of his own. Legiste scored again on a layup with 2:50 remaining. Johnson missed his jumper for Mars Hill, but David Elkins kept the possession alive with his rebound and Gilyard buried another three-pointer as MHU trailed 74-73 with 2:23 remaining.
West came up with layup to give him 18 points on the night and a 76-73 lead with 2:03 to go. After a Mars Hill timeout, the Lions came up empty, but on TU's next trip, the Pioneers turned the ball over as Elkins came up with the steal and with 1:07 to go, Gilyard made a jumper from the wing to cut the TU lead back to one (76-75).
The Pioneers worked the ball around and with 41.1 seconds remaining, MHU was whistled for a kicked ball resetting the shot clock to 20 seconds. After a TU timeout, West got of a three-pointer with the shot clock running out, but Justin Mitchell came up with the rebound with 17.6 seconds left. Mars Hill called a timeout.
Tusculum got the ball to Gibson who was fouled, the seventh of the half for Mars Hill to put the Pioneers in the bonus. Gibson made both free throws as TU led 78-75. The Lions got the ball across midcourt and called their final timeout with 11 seconds left. MHU was trying to get the ball to Gilyard to attempt the game-tying three-pointer, but were unable too as a pass was knocked out of bounds with three seconds remaining. With one last chance, Gilyard had the ball on the right wing, but his off-balanced three-point try and the horn was off target as the Pioneers held on for the victory.
The Pioneers finished the game shooting 40.6 percent from the floor including 11-of-22 from three-point territory. TU also went 11-of-12 from the charity stripe for 91.7 percent. In their last two games against MHU, the Pioneers have shot a blistering 24-of-25 from the charity stripe.
Mars Hill went 30-of-74 from the floor for 40.5 percent, but went 7-of-22 from beyond the arc (31.8%) and 8-of-13 from the foul line (61.5%). TU edged the Lions 46-41 on the glass. The Pioneers assisted on 18 of their 28 field goal makes as the TU bench out-scored MHU 29-12.
Tusculum's scheduled game with Newberry this weekend has been postponed so the Pioneers next outing will be next Wednesday when they travel over Sam's Gap for the rematch at Mars Hill.
