GREENEVILLE, Tenn. --- Four players scored in double figures as Catawba College defeated Tusculum College 60-55 in South Atlantic Conference women's basketball action Saturday afternoon at Pioneer Arena.
Bri Johnson hit five three-pointers and scored a team-high 17 points while Terri Rogers added 16 points and six rebounds for the Indians (5-2, 2-0 SAC), who took the lead for good on a layup by Alexis Newbold with 3:09 remaining that broke a 52-52 tie. Newbold had 10 points and eight rebounds off the bench for Catawba, which overcame a nine-point first-quarter deficit by limiting Tusculum to five points in the second quarter.
Tara Shields also connected on five three-pointers and had a season-high 17 points for the Pioneers (1-5, 0-3 SAC), while Maelyn Head added 15 points and five assists and Benedicta Makakala set yet another season high with 14 points to go along with five rebounds, four assists and six steals.
Both teams shot 34 percent from the field in the game, but Catawba was 15-for-19 at the foul line as a team while Tusculum finished just 8-for-10. The Indians also had a 43-33 advantage in rebounds, including 16 offensive boards that they were able to convert into 12 points.
Tusculum used back-to-back three-pointers from Head and Shields to take a 6-0 lead after less than a minute, but Catawba came back with eight consecutive points to go on top 8-6 on a Rogers layup with 5:09 left in the first quarter. Head and Shields then went back-to-back from long range again as part of a 10-0 run that gave the Pioneers a 19-10 lead at the end of the opening quarter.
However, the Pioneers would go cold from the floor in the second quarter, missing their first nine shots before Callie Patterson made a bucket with 3:21 to go in the period to snap an 11-0 Indians run. Neither team scored a point during a three-minute span that saw Tusculum freshman Kahliya Murry block four consecutive Catawba shots during a scramble underneath the Pioneer basket.
Head made another three-pointer with 49 seconds to go in the half to put the Pioneers back on top 24-23, but Johnson nailed a three-pointer of her own with eight seconds remaining to send the Indians to the locker room with a 26-24 lead.
Head had a team-high nine points and was a perfect 3-for-3 on three-pointers in the first half for the Pioneers, while Rogers led all players with 10 points to go along with five rebounds for the Indians. Catawba shot 27.3 percent (9-for-33) from the field in the first half but went 6-for-8 from the foul line while Tusculum did not get to the stripe. The Pioneers were 9-for-27 (33 percent ) from the floor in the opening half and hit 6 of their 12 three-point attempts.
The teams swapped the lead several times early in the third quarter, but a three-pointer by Johnson and a three-point play from Rogers gave Catawba its largest lead to that point at 35-30 with 6:51 left in the period. Tusculum came back on a basket by Sydney Wilson and a three-pointer by Shields which tied the game at 37-37 with 3:36 on the clock. A three-pointer by Johnson and a bucket from Brianna Hodges extended Catawba's lead back to six points, and the Pioneers were able to whittle the deficit down to 44-41 entering the final quarter.
Catawba regained a six-point lead at 51-45 on two free throws from Rogers with 5:47 left, but back-to-back baskets from Makakala pulled the Pioneers back within 51-49 with 4:45 to go. Johnson made one of two free throws with 4:32 left, with Shields answering from three-point range to knot the score at 52-52 with 3:27 remaining. Newbold then gave the Indians the lead for good with 3:09 left, and a layup off a steal from Morgan Franklin stretched the Catawba lead to 56-52 with 1:59 on the clock.
Tusculum came back as Shields made her fifth three-pointer of the day to bring the Pioneers within 56-55 with 1:30 to go, and the Pioneers had two shots to take the lead in the final 35 seconds but misfired both times. Two free throws from Marshauna Butler gave Catawba a 58-55 lead with 22.6 seconds to go, but a tying three-point attempt was off the mark and Butler hit two more free throws with 3.1 seconds left to set the final score.
Regan Croff matched her season high in rebounding for the Pioneers with 11, including four on the offensive glass, and also added three steals. Murry's six blocks are tied for the second-most in a single game in program history, and are the most since Kat Spears set the record with seven blocks against Francis Marion on Dec. 18, 2009.
Butler had 11 points for Catawba and shared the team lead in rebounds with Newbold with eight boards. Serena Brown played all 40 minutes for the Indians and did not score, but had six rebounds and shared the team lead with Franklin with five assists.
Both teams had 18 turnovers in the game, with Catawba turning Tusculum's miscues into 17 points while the Pioneers converted the Indians' mistakes into 16 points. Catawba outscored Tusculum 24-10 in the paint and had a 14-6 edge in bench scoring.
Tusculum will return to action on Thursday, Dec. 8 with a non-conference game at North Greenville University starting at 6 p.m.
