GREENEVILLE, Tenn. --- Trenton Gibson tallied 23 points, 11 rebounds and a season-high nine assists to lead the No. 2 seeded Tusculum Pioneers to a 93-70 win over seventh-seeded Catawba in a quarterfinal game of the 2021 Pilot Flying J South Atlantic Conference Men's Basketball Championship.
With the victory, Tusculum will host Thursday's semifinal match-up against No. 3 Carson-Newman who defeated Wingate 64-57 in its quarterfinal game. The Pioneers advance to the semifinal round for a second straight season and seventh time in program history. Tip-off time for Thursday's game is 7:30 p.m. at Pioneer Arena.
Tusculum (13-4) also extends its winning streak to seven in a row, the Pioneers longest since the 2008-09 club won eight straight from Jan. 17-Feb. 7, 2009 during TU's NCAA Tournament run.
Tusculum never trailed, but had to hold off several runs by the Catawba Indians who end their season at 9-11.
Gibson, a SAC Player of the Year candidate, nearly posted his second triple-double of his career as he went 8-of-17 from the floor with two 3-pointers and went a perfect 5-of-5 from the free throw line. Justin Mitchell scored a career-high 18 points as he shot 6-of-10 from the field with two triples and shot 4-of-5 from the foul line.
James West IV accounted for 15 points and five assists, Joshua Scott posted a double-double with 13 points and 10 rebounds, while Inady Legiste contributed 15 markers and seven rebounds in his 15 minutes off the bench.
Catawba was led by Terrence Whitfield's 15 points, while Caleb Robinson tallied 13 points, 10 rebounds and three blocked shots in a reserve role. SAC Player of the Week Marcus Burwell scored 13 points, while Bernard Pelote added 10 points in the loss.
The Pioneers led 38-30 at halftime and used a 13-2 run in the early moments of the second half to take a 54-34 lead with 16:40 remaining. The run was capped off by a three-point play by Scott and six straight points from Gibson thanks to a three-point play and followed by a trifecta as TU took a 20-point advantage.
But the Indians responded with 12 unanswered points over a span of 1:55 to cut the deficit to 54-46 with 14:16 on the clock. Whitfield accounted for eight of the 12 points during the spurt and Robinson sparked the Catawba surge with a dunk and a blocked shot.
With the visitors back in the game, Tusculum would push the lead back to 10 on two occasions including 60-50 at the 12:05 mark following a Justin Mitchell three-pointer. But layups by Carter Phillips and Robinson brought the Indians to within six (60-54) with 11:04 to go.
Scott hit a pair of free throws and Justin Mitchell converted a three-point play to give Tusculum a 65-54 lead with under 10 minutes left.
Back-to-back buckets by Whitfield trimmed the TU lead to 65-58 with 8:49 remaining. But the Pioneers dashed any hopes of a comeback using a 10-1 run over the next two minutes to lead 75-59 with 6:39 on the scoreboard. The Pioneers tallied an 11-1 spark later in the game to take its largest lead of the night at 24 (93-69) to put an exclamation point on the win.
Tusculum's 93 points are tied for the most points scored in its SAC Tournament history since TU's 2005 quarterfinal win over Carson-Newman (93-76). TU's 23-point margin of victory is its largest SAC Tournament win ever.
Tusculum went 31-of-76 from the field including 10-of-27 from three-point territory. TU also went 21-of-27 from the free throw line for 77.8 percent. TU won the board battle by a 50-44 margin and held a 21-9 advantage in second-chance point scoring. Tusculum also forced 14 turnovers while committing a season-low eight miscues.
Gibson moves into 21st place on Tusculum's all-time scoring list with 1,136 points, moving past James Boshears (1117 pts from 1993-1996).
The Pioneers and Carson-Newman met once this season on Jan. 6, 2021, an 82-72 victory for Tusculum in Greeneville. C-N enters Thursday's SAC semifinal riding a league-best nine-game winning streak.
