GREENEVILLE, Tenn. --- The Tusculum University men's basketball team is slated to play a pair of South Atlantic Conference games this week. The Pioneers will travel to Mars Hill University on Wednesday for a rematch with the Lions. TU will return home on Saturday to host SAC-newcomer Limestone University at Pioneer Arena.
Tusculum (8-4, 8-4 SAC) is currently in fifth place in the league standings with three weeks remaining in the regular season. TU posted a 78-75 win over Mars Hill in Greeneville last Wednesday in its last action. The Pioneers scheduled home games with Newberry College and Lenoir-Rhyne University were postponed.
LAST WEEK
In TU's win over Mars Hill, junior guard Trenton Gibson scored a game-high 23 points and connected on a pair of free throws with 14.2 seconds left in the three-point victory over the Lions. Gibson came within three assists of his second career triple-double as he hauled in 10 rebounds and dished out seven assists.
The Pioneers got 18 points off the bench from graduate student James West IV, who was seeing his first action in over a month. TU sophomore Justin Mitchell tallied career-highs with 15 points and eight rebounds while reigning SAC Player of the Week Inady Legiste finished with eight points and a 10 boards.
SCOUTING THE PIONEERS
Gibson is the only player in the South Atlantic Conference listed in the league's top-10 in scoring (19.2 ppg – 3rd in SAC / 48th in NCAA II), rebounds (7.5 rpg – 3rd), assists (4.2 apg – 8th) and steals (1.4 spg – T9th). He is also seventh in the conference in free throw percentage (.853) and is the SAC leader in free throws made (87 – 4th in NCAA II) and free throw attempts (102 – 5th in NCAA II). He has scored in double figures in 11 of his 12 games this year and on 58 occasions in his 73-game Tusculum career. His 1,044 career points are the 25th-most in program history.
West (Woodbridge, Va.) is second on the team in scoring average posting 13.4 points per contest. He is shooting 41.2 percent from three-point territory and is averaging 2.8 treys per contest. The Mount St. Mary's transfer is pulling down 3.0 rebounds per game and averaging 2.2 assists per contest.
Legiste (Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.) is third on the roster in scoring with his 8.7 points per game average. He is the team's leader in field goal percentage (.491 – 13th in SAC) and is second on the glass with 5.9 rebounds per game (T14th in SAC). He is also averaging 1.0 blocks per game which are tied for fifth in the league.
Sophomore Joshua Scott (Pompano Beach, Fla.) is fourth on the roster in scoring average with 7.8 points per outing, while pulling down 4.3 rebounds per game and is shooting 46.5 percent from the floor. He missed last Wednesday's game against Mars Hill due to injury.
Justin Mitchell, a sophomore from Lexington, Kentucky, raised his scoring average to 6.5 points per game while also posting 2.7 rebounds per contest. Sophomore Keaston Brown (Lexington, Ky.) has started in all 12 games this year and is averaging 6.1 points and 2.3 rebounds per game. He is tied for the team-lead in steals with 1.3 thefts per game which are tied for ninth in the SAC. Brown is also second on the roster in assists per game, averaging 2.3 helpers per outing.
Senior forward Brandon Mitchell (Virginia Beach, Va.) is averaging 4.8 rebounds per game and 5.4 points per contest. He is the team's leader in blocked shots averaging 1.3 per game which are second in the league and 50th in the nation. His 151 career blocked shots are the second-most in school history and needs eight more to match the school-record of 159 by Brad Hawks (2001-2005).
SCOUTING MARS HILL
Mars Hill enters this week riding a four-game losing streak including Saturday's 92-70 home loss to Wingate University. The Lions (1-8, 1-8 SAC) have a road game at UVA Wise before hosting the Pioneers on Wednesday. MHU's lone win of the season came last month with a 74-68 road victory at Limestone.
Javonte Cooke leads the Lions in scoring averaging 14.9 points per game including 20 points in last Wednesday's game against Tusculum. Cooke is pulling down 6.0 rebounds per game and leads the team in steals averaging 1.57 per contest.
Austin Gilyard is second on the team in scoring posting 13.2 points per game. He also had 20 points against Tusculum last week including four 3-pointers. Reggie Wright is averaging in double figures with 13.1 points per game but was heled to just two points against TU.
SCOUTING LIMESTONE
The Limestone Saints, who join the league as a full SAC member this year, have a busy week on tap this week playing three games including twice on the road. The Saints (2-10, 2-10 SAC) will be at Wingate on Tuesday and host Catawba College on Thursday before making the trip to TU this Saturday afternoon.
Limestone's first SAC win game against the Pioneers last month as the Saints erased a nine-point deficit in the second half en route to a 68-61 victory over Tusculum on Jan. 18. Gibson was the lone bright spot in that game for TU as he led all scorers with 28 points while grabbing 12 rebounds.
The Saints forced 26 Tusculum turnovers resulting into 26 points for Limestone, who went 26-of-34 at the free throw line while TU was 14-of-18 from the charity stripe.
After that win over Tusculum, the Saints dropped its next five outings before snapping the drought with a 100-81 victory at Mars Hill last Thursday.
Ayo Dada leads Limestone scoring attack averaging 15.9 points per game. He is also the team leader in assists (3.4 apg) and steals (1.8 spg). Dada posted 15 points last month against Tusculum and went 8-for-8 at the free throw line.
Ben Gahlert is second on the LU team in scoring with 12.9 points per game and is second in rebounding with 6.0 boards per contest. He posted 36 points in the win against Mars Hill last week where he went 12-of-18 from the floor with four 3-pointers. He accounted for 13 points and nine rebounds last month against the Pioneers.
Freshman Isayah Owens is third on the roast with his 11.0 ppg average including 10 points in this year's first meeting with Tusculum. He tallied a season-best 20 points in his last outing at Mars Hill.
FOLLOW THE PIONEERS
The "Voice of the Pioneers" Brian Stayton will describe all the action on the Pioneer Sports Network on WSMG-AM (95.5 FM / 1450 AM) and on-line at https://jewel955.com/listenlive. Live video and live stats for all Tusculum basketball games are available at: www.TusculumPioneers.com.
