HICKORY, N.C. --- The Lenoir-Rhyne men's basketball team connected on 16 three-pointers as the Bears led wire-to-wire in a 96-87 South Atlantic Conference win over Tusculum Saturday afternoon at Shuford Memorial Gymnasium.
Lenoir-Rhyne (13-7, 8-7 SAC) completes the series sweep over the Pioneers (10-11, 6-10) as the Bears went 16-of-34 from beyond the arc, including nine treys in the opening period to take a 44-34 lead at halftime.
Will Perry led all scorers with 26 points, including his five treys as he paced five players in double figures. Keenan Palmore added 21 points on 10-of-17 shooting, while also grabbing a team-high nine rebounds and dished out seven assists. Billy Bales contributed 16 points, while Reed Lucas and Lawrence Miller tallied 11 markers each in the victory.
Tusculum Chase Mounce led the Pioneers with 19 points as he returned to the TC lineup after missing Wednesday's contest due to an illness. Mounce shot 8-of-15 from the floor and added six rebounds and three assists for the visitors.
TC's Darius Carter added 15 points, five assists and four rebounds and Cory Fagan tallied 16 points while shooting 6-of-9 from the floor, including 4-of-6 from three-point territory. Kendall Patterson finished with 14 points, four assists and three steals, Zach Hartle tallied eight points while Zach Davis tallied four markers and a game-high 10 rebounds.
The Bears opened the game with a 21-8 run in the first 9:07 of the contest which was capped off by a Perry three-point play.
With L-R leading 24-11, Tusculum responded with a 15-5 spurt to trim the deficit to 29-26 with 6:21 left in the half, sparked by a pair of Fagan treys.
Lenoir-Rhyne scored 11 unanswered points to push the advantage to 40-26 with 4:20 led in the period. Mounce converted a three-point play and canned a layup to pace a 6-0 spurt as TC trailed 40-33 with 1:49 left in the half. But a Palmore bucket and Bales two free throws gave the Bears a 44-34 lead at the intermission.
In the second half, Tusculum whittled the L-R lead to five points (50-45) after a Fagan layup with 16:05 left in the game. The Bears moved their lead back to nine, but baskets from Mounce and Carter inched the Pioneers back to 56-51 with 13:32 to go.
The Bears answered with runs of 10-1 and 9-2 to jump out to their largest lead of the afternoon at 79-61 with six minutes remaining.
The Pioneers made one last charge down the stretch utilizing a 15-6 spurt to cut the L-R lead to 90-85. But a pair of dunks and perfect 8-of-8 free throw shooting sent the Bears to the victory.
Tusculum shot 51 percent for the game, including 20-of-33 in the second half (60.6%). L-R finished shooting 48 percent, including 53 percent in the final 20 minutes (17-of-32). L-R went 14-of-17 at the free throw line (82.4%) while TC went 13-of-17 (76.5%). The Bears out-rebounded Tusculum by a 37-34 margin on the boards.
Both teams recorded 19 assists each on 33 made field goals apiece. The difference was Lenoir-Rhyne 16 made three-pointers against Tusculum's eight treys.
The Pioneers return home on Wednesday to host fifth-ranked Lincoln Memorial University for an 8 p.m. tip-off.
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