BLUEFIELD, W.Va. --- Mark Durgan recorded 24 points, seven assists and seven steals to lead the Bluefield State College men's basketball team to a 76-64 victory over Tusculum College Wednesday night at Shott Gymnasium.
Dajon Reno finished the game with 16 points and seven rebounds, while Avery Holliday added 14 points, seven rebounds and shot 4-for-5 from three-point territory.
Tusculum sophomore Chase Mounce posted a solid statistical line with 17 points, five rebounds, three assists and four blocked shots, giving him 46 rejections in his young TC career, which are seventh in program history.
Sophomore Cory Fagan and freshman Taylor Hatfield tallied 13 points each off the bench for the Pioneers (1-9). Fagan also hauled in six rebounds, while Hatfield dished out five assists in the loss.
The Big Blues (4-7) led wire-to-wire as BSC scored the first six points of the contest and led 29-10 at the 11:23 mark of the first half following a layup by Austin Henderson.
Tusculum answered with a 14-3 run including three 3-pointers by Fagan and a trifecta from Hatfield as TC trailed 32-24 with 6:48 left in the half.
The Big Blues followed with a 7-2 spurt to move out to a 39-26 advantage with 3:11 left before halftime as Derrek Farr buried a three-pointer to give Bluefield State a 13-point lead.
TC closed out the period with a 7-4 flurry, including four points from Mounce and a three-pointer by junior Javon Price as Bluefield State led 43-33 at the intermission.
With the BSC leading 48-37, the Big Blues went on a 9-2 run to open up a 57-39 advantage with 12:11 remaining as Durgan sparked the spurt with back-to-back buckets.
Bluefield State took its largest lead of the night at 70-50 with three minutes left, before Tusculum closed out the contest with 14-6 run to trim the scoring margin to a dozen.
The two teams recorded 34 rebounds each, but Bluefield State won the battle of the offensive glass by a 14-3 margin, resulting into 17 second-chance points.
Tusculum posted a higher field goal percentage as the Pioneers went 21-for-46 for 45.7 percent, while BSC shot 41.3 percent, but took 29 more shots than Tusculum going 31-for-75 on the evening.
The Pioneers shot well at the free throw line making 13 of their 15 attempts for 86.7 percent. Mounce led TC going a perfect 9-for-9 at the charity stripe. Fagan has yet to miss at the line this season, extending his string to 23 in a row to start the year and has made 25 straight dating back to last season.
Price finished the game with nine points, including his three 3-pointers, while junior Matt Shown accounted for six markers and five boards for Tusculum.
The Pioneers wrap up the pre-holiday portion of its schedule and return to action in 17 days when they travel to Newberry College on Jan. 3 for a South Atlantic Conference contest at Eleazer Arena.
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