Alishia Mosley scored eight of her 15 points in overtime, including the go-ahead three-point play with 1:20 left, as Tusculum College pulled out a 61-52 victory over Lenoir-Rhyne University in a key South Atlantic Conference Women's basketball matchup Wednesday night at Pioneer Arena.

The Pioneers (17-8 overall, 11-6 SAC) outscored the Bears (19-7, 11-6) by a 14-5 margin in the extra period to move into a tie for third place in the conference standings with Lenoir-Rhyne, one game behind co-leaders Catawba and Wingate with one regular-season game remaining. With the win, Tusculum has assured itself of a home game in next Wednesday's Food Lion SAC Tournament quarterfinals.

Mosley was held scoreless in the first half, but scored 15 of the Pioneers' 34 points after intermission as Tusculum swept the season series from Lenoir-Rhyne and extended their winning streak over the Bears to six games. She went 6-for-11 from the field, including 2-for-3 from three-point range, and grabbed four rebounds in 25 minutes off the Tusculum bench.

Staci Hicks shot 6-for-6 from the field and finished with 13 points and five rebounds, and April McCann had 12 points, seven rebounds and four assists for the Pioneers, who shot 43.6 percent (24-for-55) from the field in the game and held the Bears to just 30 percent shooting (18-for-60), including 1-for-14 from three-point range.

Whitley Culler paced the Bears with 18 points and 10 rebounds, while Cameron Sealey added 11 points and six boards but shot just 4-for-18 from the field. In the overtime period, the Bears hit just two of their eight shots and turned the ball over three times.

"I can't say enough about Alishia Mosley. Her production over the last five games has been tremendous. It's the perfect time of the year for her to do that," said Pioneer head coach Adell Harris. "She's had to learn a lot about my expectations of her, and she's getting it at the right time of the year. She's never lost focus or confidence in her abilities, and it's being rewarded."

The teams opened the overtime period tied at 47, but Mosley gave the Pioneers a 49-47 lead with a jumper on the opening possession. A free throw by Culler brought the Bears within 49-48 with 3:15 to go, and she followed with a go-ahead jumper with 1:54 left for a 50-49 Lenoir-Rhyne lead.

Mosley then converted a driving, twisting layup while being fouled with 1:20 left, and drilled the free throw to push Tusculum ahead for good at 52-50. After a turnover by the Bears, Mosley connected on a three-pointer with 49.4 seconds left as the Pioneers went ahead 55-50. Kendal Baxter sank a breakaway layup with 31.6 seconds to go for a 57-50 Pioneer lead, and McCann and Linda Aughburns each sank a pair of foul shots in the final 25 seconds to seal the win.

"That's a tournament game right there. Lenoir-Rhyne gave everything they had and then some. They played as hard as they possibly could, and we responded when we needed to," said Harris. "The game wasn't clean from either team, but we played through our mistakes."

The Pioneers led 43-38 with 7:20 left in regulation, but Sealey hit a three-pointer and Whitney Brinkley nailed a layup to tie the game at 43-43 with 5:36 left. A layup by Sealey gave the Bears a 45-43 lead with 5:05 remaining, only to have Hicks knot the score at 45-45 with 2:46 left. Culler converted a layup with 1:58 remaining to again give the Bears a two-point lead at 47-45, and Hicks once again responded inside to level the contest at 47-47 with 1:38 remaining. Neither team was able to convert a go-ahead shot in the final minute, and the teams went to overtime tied 47-47.

Tusculum took an early 12-4 lead behind five points from Hicks, but Lenoir-Rhyne came back to tie the game at 15-15 on a jumper by Danielle Bongiorno with 6:05 left in the first half. The teams were tied 21-21 with two minutes left in the half, but the Pioneers' Nequoiah Anderson hit a pair of three-pointers to send Tusculum to the locker room holding a 27-21 lead.

McCann led the Pioneers with eight first-half points, with Anderson and Hicks adding seven points apiece. Culler and Bongiorno shared the team lead in scoring for Lenoir-Rhyne in the first half with eight points each, but the Bears shot just 24 percent (6-for-25) from the field as a team. Only the Bears' 9-for-12 effort at the foul line in the first half kept them within range of the Pioneers, who shot 2-for-7 at the stripe in the opening 20 minutes.

Lenoir-Rhyne finished with a 43-39 advantage on the boards in the game, though Aughburns led all players with 10 rebounds for the Pioneers. Caroline Laughter grabbed eight rebounds and Alexis Katt pulled six for the Bears, who had 16 offensive rebounds to nine by the Pioneers.

Tusculum will close out its 2011-12 regular season Saturday afternoon at 2:00 p.m. when it hosts Mars Hill at Pioneer Arena.