GREENEVILLE, Tenn. --- Freshman Kobe Funderburk drained four 3-pointers in a two-minute span late in the game to spark Tusculum University to an 87-75 season-opening victory over Wingate University Saturday afternoon at Pioneer Arena.
Tusculum junior Trenton Gibson scored 11 of his team-best 14 points in the second half and finished the game shooting 9-of-10 from the free throw line while posting team-highs with six rebounds and six assists.
Five Pioneers finished in double figure scoring including Gibson's 14 and a dozen from Funderburk as he went a perfect 4-of-4 from three-point territory. Sophomore DyQuavis Wilkins tallied a dozen markers going 5-of-7 from the floor and Sophomores Justin Mitchell and Joshua Scott accounted for 11 and 10 points, respectively. Scott also finished with six rebounds on the day.
Wingate's Kendrick Tucker led all scorers with 21 points on his 9-of-14 shooting performance. Quantra Taylor finished with a double-double of 13 points and 11 rebounds, while Francis Sio added 13 markers in the loss.
The Bulldogs jumped out to a 15-8 advantage to start the game as Taylor opened with a pair of thunderous dunks and Sio connected on a pair of three-pointers in the game's first seven minutes. Tusculum answered with a 21-6 run to take a 29-21 advantage, capped off by a James West trey with 6:17 remaining in the first half.
Wingate's Taylor Bell scored a layup, but the Pioneers went on a 10-0 run which was finished off by a Wilkins three-point play with 2:56 left before halftime as TU lead 39-23. The Bulldogs got a Tucker trey and two free throws each from Sio and Bell to trim the Tusculum advantage to 41-30. West would get a tip-in at the buzzer as the Pioneers took a 43-30 lead into the locker room.
Tusculum maintained its double-digit lead early in the second half and went on a 10-3 spurt to take its largest lead of the game at 58-41 with 12 minutes to go.
The Pioneers (1-0, 1-0 SAC) led 60-43 after a Wilkins dunk and TU led 70-55 with under seven minutes remaining. The Bulldogs (0-1, 0-1 SAC) mounted a late rally using a 9-1 run and trimmed the TU lead to 71-64 with 3:31 remaining.
But Funderburk, a rookie from Charlotte, North Carolina, connected on all four of his long-range shots including his fourth in a row with 1:36 on the clock to give the Pioneers an 83-68 advantage to put the game away. His 4-for-4 performance from beyond the arc matches the TU single-game mark for best 3-point percentage (minimum 4 attempts).
Tusculum held a 42-37 advantage in rebounding including 19-15 on the offensive boards where TU scored 22 second-chance points. The Pioneers held a 42-15 lead in bench scoring, while Wingate out-scored Tusculum in the paint by a 36-22 margin.
Both teams finished the contest shooting 44 percent from the floor as TU buried 14 three-pointers on 36 attempts, while Wingate made three treys on their 14 tries. The Bulldogs went 24-of-39 from the free throw line for 62 percent, while the Pioneers went 19-of-29 at the charity stripe (66%).
Saturday's game begins a busy stretch for the Pioneers as TU plays four times in the next seven days. Tusculum hosts UVA Wise this Tuesday night for a 7:30 p.m. contest at Pioneer Arena. TU will then travel to NCAA Division I Furman University for a 4 p.m. exhibition game, before traveling to Lincoln Memorial next Saturday to face the second-ranked Railsplitters.
