GREENEVILLE, Tenn. --- Jalia Arnwine scored 17 of her game-high 22 points in the second half and made a career-best six three-pointers as Tusculum University rallied from a 15-point deficit to defeat Lincoln Memorial University 71-62 in South Atlantic Conference women's basketball action Wednesday night at Pioneer Arena.
Brianna Dixon added 18 points and Maddie Sutton notched her 10th straight double-double and NCAA Division II-leading 14th of the season with 15 points and 16 rebounds for the Pioneers (14-2, 14-2 SAC), who snapped a two-game home losing streak by shooting 56 percent (14-for-25) from the field in the second half, including 7-for-9 from three-point range. Arnwine was 6-for-9 from beyond the arc for the game and 5-for-6 in the second half for the Pioneers, while Kirsten Click came off the bench to hit 3-for-4 from beyond the arc en route to nine points.
Maggie Jachimczuk led the Railsplitters (7-9, 6-9 SAC) with 18 points as four players reached double figures for Lincoln Memorial. Lexi Kiser added 14 points, Jordan Maney had 11 points and six rebounds and Lauren Flowers contributed 10 points and a team-high seven rebounds. LMU led 41-32 at halftime, but shot just 3-for-12 in the third quarter as the Pioneers outscored the Railsplitters 25-10 in the quarter to take a 57-52 lead.
Tusculum trailed 41-26 following a three-pointer by Maney with 56 seconds left in the second quarter, but outscored Lincoln Memorial 45-21 the rest of the game. The 15-point deficit was the largest overcome by the Pioneers in a victory since Feb. 1, 2014 when Tusculum defeated Queens 65-64 after trailing 50-33 with 9:40 left.
With the victory, Tusculum retains its grip on second place in the SAC standings at 14-2, trailing only Carson-Newman (13-1) and ahead of UVA Wise (11-3) and Catawba (7-2). The top three finishers in the league standings will receive a first-round bye in the SAC Championship tournament, which begins Feb. 27 at campus sites.
The opening quarter featured four ties and three lead changes. Lincoln Memorial twice led by three points following threes by Kiser with 2:52 left in the quarter and by Jachimczuk with 2:00 to go which gave the Railsplitters a 14-11 lead. A three-pointer from Click tied the game with 35 seconds remaining, but Flowers hit a layup in the closing seconds to give LMU a 16-14 lead after one.
The game was tied 21-21 early in the second quarter following a jumper from Dixon, but Tusculum would go scoreless for 3 1/2 minutes and without a field goal for 7 1/2 minutes. The Railplitters went on a 14-1 run to go up 35-22 following a Flowers three-pointer with 3:05 left in the half, and built the lead to 15 on the Maney three in the final minute before consecutive threes from Arnwine and Dixon cut the LMU lead to 41-32 at the half.
Dixon led Tusculum with 14 points on 5-for-8 shooting from the field and 3-for-3 from the foul line, while Sutton had 10 rebounds to go along with five points. The Pioneers shot 11-for-30 (36.7 percent) from the field in the half and 4-for-12 from beyond the arc, while LMU was 10-for-15 from deep in the opening half. Jachimczuk hit 4-for-4 from long range in the first half and led LMU with 14 points, while Maney was 3-for-4 on three-pointers and had nine points.
Tusculum chipped away at the deficit in the third quarter, pulling within 43-40 on the second three of the period by Arnwine with 7:06 remaining. Back-to-back three-pointers from Marta Rodrigues and Click gave Tusculum the lead at 53-51 with 3:17 left in the quarter, part of a 10-0 run to end the period as the Railsplitters went without a field goal for the final 5:21 and scoreless for the last 4:36 of the frame.
The run would swell to 15-0 as Arnwine hit a three and Dixon hit a layup to give Tusculum a 62-51 lead with 7:26 left. Jachimczuk finally snapped the LMU scoring drought that lasted 7 1/2 minutes, but the Railsplitters would get no closer than seven points the rest of the way. A Sutton layup with 2:09 left gave the Pioneers their biggest lead at 71-59, and a three-point play from Kiser with 56 seconds remaining was the only scoring for either team down the stretch.
Rodrigues finished with seven points and a game-high seven assists while playing every minute for the seventh time this season. Click returned after missing three games and hit three three-pointers for the fourth time in 10 games this season. In addition to her 10th straight double-double, Sutton dished out five assists and played in all 40 minutes, as did Dixon.
Tusculum was 10-for-11 at the foul line and outscored Lincoln Memorial 26-14 in the paint. The Pioneers turned the ball over just 12 times and forced LMU into 14 turnovers, which Tusculum turned into 18 points. Tusculum finished the game at 45.5 percent (25-for-55) from the field and 11-for-21 from three-point range, marking the third straight game that the Pioneers have canned at least 11 threes. In that three-game span, Tusculum is 41-for-76 (53.9 percent) from three-point territory.
After shooting 10-for-15 from three-point territory in the first half, Lincoln Memorial cooled off to 2-for-11 in the second half and missed all four of its attempts in the fourth quarter. Lindsay Proffitt was the only LMU starter to not score in double figures, finishing with seven points and six rebounds in 37 minutes.
Tusculum will make its longest road trip of the 2020-21 season with a visit to Coker on Saturday at 2 p.m. The Cobras host Lenoir-Rhyne on Thursday owning a 6-9 conference record, putting them in a tie for ninth place in the league with Lincoln Memorial.
