Kelsey Bradford scored a game-high 22 points and Kalasia Green
added 20 to lead Lincoln Memorial University to a 72-64 victory
over Tusculum College in South Atlantic Conference Women's
basketball action Wednesday night at Tex Turner Arena.
Green went 8-for-13 from the field and Bradford was 16-for-22 at
the free-throw line for the Railsplitters (10-9, 3-6 SAC), who
outscored the Pioneers by a 41-30 margin in the second half and
converted 23 Tusculum turnovers into 31 points.
Ashley Thurman was one of four players in double figures for the
Pioneers (10-7, 4-5 SAC) with 13 points and eight rebounds. Kendal
Baxter added 12 points, Breaira Barksdale contributed 11 points and
Nequoiah Anderson came off the bench to score 10 points and grab
five rebounds.
Green and Bradford combined to score 28 points in the second half
for the Railsplitters, with Bradford going 13-for-18 at the line.
Overall, LMU was 25-for-34 at the foul line while Tusculum shot
11-for-18 as a team at the stripe.
After shooting 59 percent (14-for-25) from the field in the first
half, Tusculum dropped to 29.4 percent (10-for-34) in the second
half to end the game at 24-for-59 (40.7 percent). The Pioneers were
5-for-21 from three-point range while the Railsplitters connected
on five of their 15 attempts.
Tusculum scored the game's first four points on a pair of layups by
Thurman, but LMU came back with eight unanswered points to take an
8-4 lead, thanks to three-pointers from Green and Ralissa Nelson.
The Pioneers turned around with seven straight points of their own
to go on top 11-8 with 14:45 left in the first half, then used
another 7-0 run to take a 20-12 lead on an April McCann steal and
layup with 10:31 to play in the half.
Lincoln Memorial clawed their way back to a 31-31 tie on a free
throw by Bradford with 1:17 left in the half, but a free throw by
Anderson and a putback by Thurman with 1:07 to go sent the Pioneers
to the locker room holding a 34-31 lead.
The Pioneers were led in the first half by Barksdale, who was
4-for-5 and scored a team-high nine points. Thurman added seven
points for Tusculum while McCann had a team-best four rebounds to
go along with four points.
Green paced the Railsplitters with nine points in the opening half,
but LMU combined to shoot just 37.9 percent (11-for-29) from the
field. Bradford had four rebounds and three assists to go along
with five points in the half.
Thurman gave the Pioneers a 36-31 lead on a putback in the first
minute of the second half, but the Railsplitters responded with an
11-2 run to take a 42-38 lead on a Bradford layup with 15:10 to
play.
A three-pointer by Anderson and another by Jama Hammontree helped
the Pioneers to a 52-48 lead with 7:26 remaining, but an 11-2 run
from the Railsplitters over the next three minutes gave LMU the
lead for good at 59-54 with 4:30 to go.
Bradford put the game away at the free-throw line in the final two
minutes, going 8-for-12 to help LMU lead by as many as 12 points in
the final minute.
Hammontree finished with eight points for the Pioneers while
Shynese Whitener came off the bench to record six points and four
rebounds in 12 minutes. McCann shared the team lead in rebounds for
the Pioneers with eight boards in the contest, but the Pioneers
were outrebounded by the Railsplitters by a 40-35 margin. Kristen
McMillion added to her team lead in blocked shots with three
rejections in 11 minutes.
Tusculum will be home Saturday afternoon against Brevard in a SAC
matchup beginning at 2 p.m. from Pioneer Arena.
