GREENEVILLE, Tenn. --- Chase Ward-McEwen's offensive rebound and layup with a minute remaining capped an 11-point second half rally as Tusculum edged Brevard 66-64 Saturday afternoon in South Atlantic Conference men's basketball action at Pioneer Arena.
Trailing 64-58 with 3:43 left in the contest, the Pioneers (5-13, 3-7 SAC) scored the final eight points of the game as the Tornados (2-16, 1-9 SAC) shot 0-for-3 and committed two turnovers down the stretch.
Following BC's final points, a Dominique Pickett layup, TC's Addison Flynn and Matt Shown connected on back-to-back buckets to pull the Pioneers to within two points at 64-62 with 2:42 remaining.
Keith Jumper would make one free throw and miss the second with 1:36 left, but Nick Spinks came up with the offensive rebound. Spinks would miss his layup, but Ward-McEwen would come up with the rebound and score the go-ahead basket with 1:08 remaining, giving the Pioneers their first of the game since lead 2-0, 22 seconds into the contest.
Matthew Ward missed his jumper with 37 seconds remaining, forcing Brevard to foul. Jumper went to the line and made his first free throw attempt, but missed the second, as the Tornados had one last shot to tie or take the lead.
Brevard worked the clock down as Pickett went for the win with his three-point attempt from the top of the key, but his shot hit off the left side of the rim to end the game.
Tusculum trailed 30-23 at the half after shooting a dismal 23 percent (7-of-30) from the floor. The Pioneers responded by shooting a blistering 16-of-25 in the second half (64%) as Jumper scored 14 of his 15 points in the final period, shooting 5-for-7 from the floor and grabbed eight rebounds in the second half.
Shown scored 10 points and grabbed 10 rebounds, while Flynn added 12 points, in his 38 minutes of action.
Pickett led the Tornados with 16 points, while Alex Moe added 15 points. Manzey Miller and Miles Leather each scored 12 points, while Leathers added nine rebounds in the loss.
Following TC's opening bucket, Brevard went on a 15-2 run to take a 15-4 lead five minutes into the contest. After TC trimmed the deficit to 15-9 following a three-point play by Neal Spinks at the 12:47 mark, the Tornados answered with a Gerel Simmons' three-pointer and a Miller layup to lead by a 11 again at 20-9.
Tusculum chipped away at the deficit again in the first half and following a free throw by JD Miller to bring TC to within four (23-19), BC went on a 5-0 spurt thanks to another Simmons trey as BC led 28-19 and would take a 30-23 lead into the locker room.
In the early portion of the second half, Tusculum cut the BC lead to five points on three occasions, including 40-35 with 15:40 remaining thanks to back-to-back layups by Jumper.
Pickett sparked the Tornados again with his third 3-pointer of the day and a pair of free throws as BC matched its largest lead of afternoon again, 52-41 with 11:43 left on the clock.
Tusculum outscored Brevard 17-9 over the next 6:05 to trail 61-58 with 5:38 remaining to set up the late-game drama.
Nick Spinks finished with seven points and a team-high four assists, while Darius Carter added eight points and six boards. Neal Spinks posted five points, while Ward-McEwen added five points in the win.
The Pioneers return to action Wednesday night as they travel to Jefferson City to take on archrival Carson-Newman for an 8 p.m. contest. Brevard is back at home on Wednesday to host Catawba at Boshamer Gymnasium.
- TC -
