Tusculum College brushed off a sluggish first-half performance by shooting 52 percent from the field in the second half on its way to a 67-45 victory over Brevard College in South Atlantic Conference Women's basketball action Saturday afternoon at Pioneer Arena.

Kendal Baxter drilled four three-pointers and scored a game-high 25 points to lead the Pioneers (15-5, 9-3 SAC), who won for the eighth time in nine games and improved to 10-0 all-time against the Tornados (5-15, 0-12 SAC), who lost their 12th straight game.

Staci Hicks added 15 points and nine rebounds for Tusculum, which led 28-25 at halftime but opened the second half with a 17-4 run to take command of the contest. April McCann grabbed a game-high 10 rebounds for the Pioneers, while Ashley Thurman grabbed a season-high eight boards in 20 minutes off the bench.

Michaela Watkins led the Tornados with 10 points and four steals, but Brevard shot just 30.6 percent (19-for-62) from the field in the game and lost the rebounding battle with Tusculum by a 48-31 margin.

The Pioneers suffered an early setback when Jama Hammontree was injured on a collision 2:14 into the contest, and the Tornados took advantage of the distraction by taking a 15-13 lead on a three-pointer by Holli Flippo with 9:09 left in the first half.

Tusculum finally gained the lead for good when Baxter hit three foul shots with 2:06 remaining to give the Pioneers a 26-23 lead. Hicks hit a layup in the final seconds of the half to give her 10 points and send the Pioneers to intermission with a 28-25 advantage.

Baxter led all players with 11 points in the first half, while Hicks added five rebounds to go with her 10 points. Tusculum held a slender 23-21 edge in rebounding over Brevard, but held the Tornados to 28.6 percent (10-for-35) from the field in the half.

"I was very distracted by the hit that Jama took, as our team was. Jama is a kid that everybody loves, so we were all distracted by that and Brevard forced us into turnovers," said Pioneer head coach Adell Harris. "We were kind of sloppy and they were able to get some second shots. The whole first 20 minutes really was just a matter of trying to get back into the locker room and talk about making our adjustments, sticking together and having other people step up so we can find a way to win."

The Pioneers stormed out of the locker room on a 9-2 run over the first six minutes, taking their first double-digit lead of the day at 37-27 on a layup by Alishia Mosley with 14:23 to go. Tusculum extended the run to 17-4, going on top 45-29 on a layup by Baxter with 10:39 remaining.

"In the locker room, it was about how we respond - do our leaders step up and do more? Does our bench step up and give us more? Our bench had to play more minutes and play out of position. We did a good job of keeping focus, and we held them to 20 points in the second half and got some stops. I'm proud of our group for having resolve and finding a way to get a win," Harris said.

Leading 50-38 with just over seven minutes left, Tusculum ran off a 15-5 run that featured back-to-back three-pointers from Baxter and a trey by Linda Aughburns. The Pioneers finished the game 6-for-16 from downtown while the Tornados connected on just five of its 20 attempts.

Aughburns finished with seven points, seven rebounds and four assists for the Pioneers, while McCann added a team-high five assists to go with her fourth double-digit rebounds game of the season. Nequoiah Anderson also had a strong day off the bench, scoring seven points in 18 minutes.

Lindsay Brendle tallied nine points for the Tornados and added five rebounds and four steals, and Anna Schlobohm came off the bench to contribute nine points in 27 minutes. Asheley Watkins dished out a game-high six assists for Brevard, while Lacey Singletary led the way on the boards with six.

Tusculum will be back in action Wednesday night at 6 p.m. with a SAC contest at rival Carson-Newman.