GREENEVILLE, Tenn. --- Senior Kendal Baxter poured in 22 points, including four 3-pointers to lead the Tusculum women's basketball team to a 70-56 South Atlantic Conference win over Newberry on TC's Senior Night at Pioneer Arena on Wednesday night.
Tusculum (14-11, 8-9 SAC) led wire-to-wire, while avenging last month's loss to the Wolves (18-9, 10-7 SAC) as the Pioneers clinch the program's eighth consecutive winning season. With the victory, the Pioneers remain tied for fifth place in the conference, while Newberry is fourth in the SAC standings.
Senior Breaira Barksdale added 14 points, including 10 in the opening half, while senior Ashley Thurman added seven points and a game-high nine rebounds, including five on the offensive glass. Seniors April McCann and Jama Hammontree posted six and five points, respectively for the Pioneers.
Baxter eclipsed the 1,300-point plateau for her career, becoming only the 10th player in school history to accomplish the feat. She has 1,304 career points moving her into ninth place on the TC all-time scoring list past former Tusculum great Pam York (1,301 points from 1979-1983).
Newberry, the 10th-ranked team in the NCAA Division II Southeast Region, were led in scoring by Devanee Taylor's 15 points. Kendra Brown added 13 points and eight rebounds, while Samantha Creed finished with 10 markers and five boards in the loss.
Tusculum jumped out of the gate strong with a 16-3 run in the opening 7:13, including the first eight points of the contest. Baxter led the charge scoring nine of her 15 first half points during the early run as TC forced nine early turnovers by the Wolves.
Newberry bounced back and trimmed the deficit to six points, using a 9-2 spurt to trail 21-15 with 7:28 left in the half following a Taylor jumper.
TC responded with a 12-2 run to take a 33-17 lead with 4:40 on the clock, thanks to three-pointers by Barksdale and Baxter and a Thurman layup. The Pioneers would take a 38-23 lead at halftime as the Pioneers recorded six 3-pointers, while out-rebounding the Wolves by a 24-15 margin at the intermission, including 12-5 on the offensive glass.
Newberry cut the TC advantage to 40-29 following an Ellie Gleeson layup with 16:16 left in the game. Following a Tusculum timeout, the Pioneers jumped out to its largest lead of the night at 52-31 with 11:44 left, following a 12-2 spurt that included a three-pointer by Hammontree and five points from Baxter.
The Pioneers would not surrender their double-digit lead for the remainder of the evening, but the Wolves would cut the deficit to 10 points and three occasions.
Tusculum won the rebound battle by a 47-36 margin, including 20 offensive boards by the Pioneers. Both teams shot below 40 percent on the evening from the floor (TC - 37.5%; NEW - 35.1%). Tusculum finished the game shooting 7-for-19 from three-point territory, while Newberry went 2-of-12 from long-range (16.7%).
Tusculum shot 71.4 percent from the free throw line, including 11-of-14 (78.6%) in the second half. Newberry went 14-of-16 at the charity stripe (87.5%), including 5-for-5 performances by Taylor and Brown.
The Pioneers will close out the regular season on Saturday with a 2 p.m. contest at Brevard. Newberry will host Lenoir-Rhyne on Saturday at 2 p.m.
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