ST. THOMAS, V.I. --- Justin Mitchell recorded 13 points and a game-high eight rebounds to lead the Tusculum men's basketball team to a 67-59 win over Virginia State Sunday morning in a semifinal match-up of the YES U.S. Virgin Islands Classic.
The Pioneers (6-4) advance to Monday's championship game where they will face West Virginia State, who defeated Kentucky State in Sunday's first semifinal. TU snapped a three-game losing streak while also halting the Trojans (10-4) five-game winning streak. Monday's final will tip off at 10:15 a.m. (ET).
Tusculum jumped out to a 9-0 lead sparked by Mitchell who scored the first seven points of the contest. Francis Fitzgerald halted the skid with a bucket, but TU followed with back-to-back triples by KJ Crump and Jalen Crowder to go up 17-4 at the 13:44 mark of the first half.
VSU trimmed the deficit to nine before the Pioneers went on a 10-3 spurt to take its largest lead of the half at 27-11 thanks to three-pointers from Crowder and Kyle Brown.
The Trojans roared back with 11 unanswered points to trim the deficit to 27-22 with 2:28 remaining in the period. The Pioneers closed out the half with a 5-0 run as Tusculum took a 32-22 lead into the locker room.
TU extended the run to 15-2 as the Pioneers came out of the intermission on fire, highlighted by Crowder's four-point play as Tusculum took its largest lead of the day at 42-24 with 17:37 remaining.
Virginia State outscored TU 22-10 over the next eight minutes to make it a 52-46 contest midway through the second half.
Tusculum went on a 9-3 run over the next six minutes to lead by a dozen (61-49) with 3:50 left in the game.
The Trojans made one last charge going utilizing a 10-3 run including eight points alone from Zach Newkirk as VSU trailed 64-59 with 1:27 remaining.
But Tusculum clamped down defensively as Virginia State missed its final five shots and TU made three of four free throws in the final 58 seconds to secure the victory.
Legiste recorded 14 points and four rebounds for Tusculum as his string of consecutive games with a double-double end at seven in a row. Crowder finished with a dozen markers, while Joshua Scott and James West IV each had seven points.
Fitzgerald led all scorers with his 15 points, while Terrence Hunter-Whit had 11 points in the first meeting between Tusculum and Virginia State.
Tusculum out-rebounded the Trojans 41-34 as the Pioneers shot 47 percent from the floor while VSU connected on 38 percent from the floor.
