GREENEVILLE, Tenn. --- The Catawba College men's basketball team rallied from a 16-point deficit in Saturday's 89-86 South Atlantic Conference win over host Tusculum College at Pioneer Arena.
Jameel Taylor led the charge with 23 points, while Malik Constantine added 20 markers and nine rebounds off the bench for the Catawba Indians (6-2, 1-2 SAC) who record their third win in a row and its first league victory of the season. Tusculum (4-2, 2-1 SAC) suffers its first SAC setback of the year and has its five-game home winning streak halted, a run which began last February.
For a second straight game, the Pioneers had five players in double figures led by senior Cory Fagan's 21-point outburst as he poured in four 3-pointers and grabbed a season-high seven rebounds. Senior Zach Davis added 15 points and a team-high nine boards, while senior Kendall Patterson finished with 14 points and dished out a career-high 10 assists for this first collegiate double-double.
TC junior Ronnie Baylark posted 14 points, while freshman Keaton Dotson added 10 points of the bench for the Pioneers.
After Catawba took the initial lead with a Taylor three-pointer, the Pioneers responded with a dozen unanswered points to spark an 18-2 run as the Pioneers led 18-5 at the 16:22 mark of the opening period. Tusculum extended that lead to 23-7 thanks to a jumper from freshman Trey Blevins with 13:42 to go in the half.
The Catawba Indians scored 10 unanswered points in a three-minute span to trim the deficit to single digits at 23-17. Tusculum bumped the lead back out to 13 (34-21) thanks to an 11-4 run, including a pair of Davis' free throws with 7:09 left in the first half.
With TC ahead 34-24 with 6:07 on the clock, Catawba used a 10-2 run as the visitors trailed 36-34 with 3:22 before halftime.
Dotson connected on a pair of layups in the final minute to give the Pioneers a 46-40 lead, but Ben Sealey drained a three-pointer just before the buzzer as Catawba trailed 46-43 at the intermission.
Tusculum opened the second half with three-pointers from Davis and Fagan to extend the lead to 52-45, but Catawba scored eight unanswered points, including back-to-back buckets by Taylor as the Indians led 53-52, their first lead since going up 3-0, 13 seconds into the game.
Catawba maintained the momentum and the lead for most of the second half including a 65-58 advantage following a Constantine three-point play with 11:13 left in the contest.
The Pioneers maintained their distance before regaining the lead at 72-71 thanks to a Dotson trey with 5:39 left in the game.
After a jumper by senior Chase Mounce to give TC a 74-73 lead with five minutes to go, Catawba used a 9-0 run over the next three-minutes, including a pair of Taylor dunks as the Indians moved out to their largest lead of the game at 82-74 with 2:08 on the scoreboard.
The two teams exchanged baskets as Baylark scored on a fast-break layup before Taylor answered with a bucket of his own as Catawba led 84-76 with 1:40 left. Davis scored a lay-up and Fagan buried his fourth trey of the game to cut the deficit to 84-81 with a minute left.
Catawba's Rakeen Brown was fouled and he made one of his two free throws with 54.1 seconds left. The Pioneers got off a pair of errant three-point tries on their next possession, but Catawba was unable to convert a layup as TC was still in the hunt. Baylark went coast-to-coast and scored a layup with 22:5 seconds to go as Tusculum trailed 85-83.
Brown was fouled again and he made both of his free throws on this trip with 21.3 second remaining as Catawba went up 87-83. Baylark buried a three-pointer with 14.4 seconds left to cut the Catawba lead to one at 87-86.
Catawba's Troy Warren was fouled and he connected on both of his free throws with 13.7 to go as the Indians led by three at 89-86.
The Pioneers worked the ball up the court to the right side as Baylark took a pass from Patterson and got off a three-point try from the right wing, but the shot clanged off the rim at the buzzer as Catawba held on for the victory.
Catawba held a 46-41 edge in rebounding, including 14 offensive rebounds, resulting into 20 second-chance points. TC had 12 offensive boards, but could only convert those second looks into four points.
Catawba also had a 44-32 scoring advantage in the paint, while the Tribe's bench out-scored the Pioneers by a 42-14 margin. Catawba shot 43.8 percent from the floor, including 12-of-23 (52.2%) in the second half.
The Indians went 29-of-40 (72.5%) from the free throw line, including 22-of-29 (75.9%) in the second half. The Pioneers shot a blistering 12-of-14 in the first half, but went 4-of-10 in the final 20 minutes to finish the game at 66.7 percent from the foul line.
TC senior Chase Mounce finished the game with eight points and eight rebounds as he moved into 20th place on the Tusculum scoring list. He has scored 1,068 points in his career as he moves past TC Sports Hall of Famer Doug DeBusk (1,062 – 1991-1995).
Fagan's four treys also moves him into the TC record book as he has knocked down 154 three-pointers in his career, which are the ninth-most in program history. He has connected on a three-pointer in 22 straight games dating back to last year.
The Pioneers return to action on Wednesday as they travel to Bristol to take on long-time in-state foe King University for a 7 p.m. tipoff. Tusculum rallied from a 22-point deficit on Nov. 12, 2016 to defeat the Tornado 88-81 last month.
