Posted: Mar 04, 2009
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GREENEVILLE, Tenn. --- Stephany Neptune scored a
season-high 21 points, and hauled down a Food Lion South Atlantic
Conference Tournament record 24 rebounds to lead the No. 13
Tusculum College women's basketball team (24-4) to an 89-55 win
over Lincoln Memorial University (11-17) in the quarterfinal round
of the SAC Tournament on Wednesday night at Pioneer Arena.Tusculum connected on 43.9% of its attempts from the floor and grabbed a season-high 64 rebounds in the win. The Pioneers came within one board of tying the program record for rebounds in a game, and won the battle on the glass 64-34. Tusculum held the Railsplitters to a 29.2% clip from the field on the night. The Pioneers forced 19 Railsplitter turnovers in the game, which they converted into 16 points. Tusculum also scored 24 second chance points as the TC bench chipped in with 29 markers.
Neptune led all scorers with her 21 points, pouring in her 1,000th career marker early in the first half. The 5-9 junior set a program single-game record with her 24 boards on the night, while becoming the third player in school history to reach the 900-rebound plateau in her career. Neptune also recorded her SAC-leading 11th double-double of the season while recording Tusculum's first 20-20 game since December of 2000. The Wallkill, N.Y. native also recorded team highs in assists (4) and blocks (4).
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Tusculum's Jasmine Gunn turned in her second
double-double of the season with 13 points and a career-high 10
rebounds. Kat Spears poured in 18 points on
7-of-11 shooting and hauled down seven rebounds. Jasmine
Parker chipped in 11 points while Shantae
Shank had a game-high four steals.Dayshalee Salaman paced the Railsplitter attack with 15 points and three assists. Cena Nasiloski scored seven points and hauled down a team-high seven rebounds, while Amberly O'Dell scored eight points and had six boards.
Tusculum jumped out to an early 8-3 lead in the first three minutes of the opening half and would lead wire-to-wire in the game. After Lincoln Memorial cut the lead to 8-7, the Pioneers launched an 11-0 run to open a 19-7 margin with 12:47 remaining in the half. Tusculum scored 11 of the next 15 points, and ended the half with a 13-7 run over the final six and a half minutes to hold a 45-24 lead at the break.
Lincoln Memorial would cut the lead to 13 in the opening minutes of the second half, beginning the period with a 9-1 spurt to trim the margin to 46-33 with 16:39 to play. Tusculum responded with a quick 8-0 run, which turned into a 24-11 spurt over the next eight minutes to put the Pioneers up 70-44 with 8:08 left on the clock. The Pioneers then closed out their 24th win of the season with a 19-11 run to equal the final margin of 89-55.
Tusculum advances to the semifinal round of the SAC Tournament this weekend in Hickory, N.C. where the Pioneers will square off against conference rival Carson-Newman College. The 2009 Food Lion SAC Tournament is being held at the Catawba Valley Community College Multipurpose Facility.
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