WISE, Va. --- Tusculum University overcame a season-low 28.1 percent shooting by limiting UVA Wise to 19 points in the second half as the Pioneers pulled out a 54-47 victory Wednesday evening at the Prior Convocation Center in South Atlantic Conference women's basketball action.
Blayre Shultz scored 17 points and Deidre Cheremond added 10 points, 10 rebounds and a career-high five steals as the Pioneers (18-5, 9-4 SAC) clinched a berth in the upcoming SAC Women's Basketball Championship tournament with the victory. Mya Belton added 13 points and seven rebounds while Jami Tham had a game-high 14 rebounds but saw her streak of consecutive games with a double-double end at 22.
Nia Vanzant led the Cavaliers (13-12, 4-10 SAC) with 15 points and Caitlyn Ross added 12 points and eight assists, but UVA Wise shot just 6-for-27 (22.2 percent) from the floor in the second half and turned the ball over 20 times which led to 15 points for the Pioneers and helped send the Cavaliers to their sixth consecutive loss. The win gave Tusculum its first season series sweep of UVA Wise since 2019-20 and snapped a two-game losing streak for the Pioneers at the Prior Convocation Center.
The 28.1 percent shooting for the Pioneers was the lowest in a game since shooting 27.9 percent (17-for-61) in a 52-45 loss at Newberry on Feb. 5, 2022. Tusculum had not won when shooting under 30 percent since hitting 29.8 percent (14-for-47) and beating Belmont Abbey 55-46 on Nov. 8, 2019.
Shultz scored eight of her 17 points during the decisive fourth quarter, including three foul shots in the final 45 seconds after the Cavaliers had pulled within 51-47 on a basket by Katlin Burger with 1:04 left. Cheremond's double-double was her fourth of the season and first since Nov. 26 against Young Harris and came in 23 minutes, the most she has played off the bench in a game this season.
Tham, who was two games shy of tying the NCAA Division II record of 24 straight games with a double-double, had eight points on 2-for-9 from the field and 4-for-6 from the foul line before leaving due to injury with 2:16 remaining. Tham had seven of her 14 rebounds on the offensive end, helping contribute to Tusculum's 18 offensive boards in the game. The Pioneers outrebounded the Cavaliers 46-35 in the game, while limiting UVA Wise to just five offensive boards as a team.
With the win, Tusculum moved within a half-game of first place in the SAC Mountain Division behind Carson-Newman (9-3), which was upset 69-64 at Mars Hill on Wednesday. The Pioneers remain a game ahead of Limestone (8-5) , which beat Newberry 71-52 for its fourth win in five games.
Tusculum jumped to an 8-5 lead after three minutes on three-pointers from Belton and Shultz, and went up 13-8 on another Shultz three-pointer with 4:31 left in the opening quarter. UVA Wise would trail 16-11 after a three from Sophie Henry with 2:41 to go in the quarter, but a three-pointer from Ross and a jumper from Burger would tie the game at 16-16 after one.
UVA Wise would take its first lead at 18-16 on a basket by Kaitlin Bailey in the opening minute of the second quarter, but Tusculum ran off eight straight points which included consecutive baskets from Cheremond as the Pioneers led 24-18 with 6:32 to play in the half. Cheremond canned a three-pointer to stretch the Pioneer lead to 27-22 with 4:33 left in the half, but UVA Wise would tie the game at 27-27 on a layup by Vanzant with 2:07 left. Two free throws from Tham with 1:43 left were answered by one from Ross with 21 seconds to go as the Pioneers took a 29-28 lead to intermission.
Shultz led the Pioneers with eight points in the first half, with seven from Cheremond and six points and six rebounds by Tham. Tusculum shot 34.4 percent (11-for-32) from the field and went 5-for-14 from three-point range with 12 turnovers. Vanzant led the Cavaliers with 10 points on 4-for-6 shooting as UVA Wise shot 50 percent (11-for-22) from the floor and 4-for-6 from long range.
The Pioneers would miss 12 of their first 13 shots in the third quarter but only trailed 37-32 following two free throws by Vanzant with 3:23 left in the period. Tusculum would come back to take a 38-37 lead on a layup by Belton with 1:32 to play in the quarter, and a putback from Cheremond would send the Pioneers to the fourth with a 40-38 lead after the Cavaliers missed their final eight shots of the period.
Tusculum opened the fourth quarter with a 9-2 run, highlighted by consecutive three-pointers from Shultz and Belton which pushed the Pioneers to a 48-40 lead with 7:44 to go. The teams would then go scoreless for the next three minutes until a foul shot from Cheremond with 4:45 to play, and the Cavaliers would end their scoreless drought at nearly 5 1/2 minutes on a layup by Burger with 3:57 left to pull Wise within 49-42. Tusculum would miss its final eight shots after Belton's three-pointer with 7:44 to go, but the Pioneers went 5-for-8 from the foul line in the final three minutes to hold off the Cavaliers.
Henry had six points and six assists in 38 minutes for the Pioneers, along with two of the team's 13 steals. Burger led the UVA Wise bench with 11 points and four rebounds in 24 minutes, while Leah Kestner had a team-high seven rebounds but had just four points in 30 minutes.
Tusculum will return home for three consecutive games, starting Saturday at 2 p.m. against Lenoir-Rhyne. The Bears, who were ranked in the top 10 in Division II in mid-January, have lost three in a row to drop to 18-5 overall and 8-5 in the SAC. Lenoir-Rhyne lost 92-64 at Wingate on Wednesday for their third consecutive road loss and fourth setback in their last six contests.
