HARTSVILLE, S.C. --- Tusculum University shot 55 percent from the field in the second half and went on to defeat Coker University 74-57 in South Atlantic Conference men's basketball action Saturday afternoon at the DeLoach Center.
The Pioneers (11-4, 11-2 SAC) won their sixth straight game and remained tied for first place in the SAC standings with Lincoln Memorial by shooting 17-for-31 from the field in the second half and outscoring the Cobras 43-28. Trenton Gibson led Tusculum with 16 points and Brandon Mitchell posted his fourth double-double of the season with 14 points and a game-high 11 rebounds to go along with a pair of blocked shots and a season-high three steals. Justin Mitchell was a perfect 5-for-5 from the field and scored 11 points for Tusculum, which scored 22 points off 20 Coker turnovers and outrebounded the Cobras by a 36-2 margin.
Williams Onyeodi led the Cobras (3-11, 3-8 SAC) with a game-high 22 points and Jahnarious Snell added 16 as Coker shot 44.2 percent (19-for-43) from the field in the game but just 36.4 percent (8-for-22) in the second half. Jordan Jones added eight points and a game-high eight assists for Coker, who used just seven players against a Tusculum squad that had nine players play 15 minutes or more.
Inady Legiste finished with nine points and three rebounds in 18 minutes off the bench for the Pioneers, and Jacob Hobbs went 3-for-5 from the field and tallied eight points and a career-high eight rebounds. The Tusculum bench outscored Coker's bench by a 22-2 margin in the game. Overall, Tusculum shot 48.3 percent (29-for-60) from the field and went 7-for-21 on three-pointers.
Tusculum scored the game's first six points on three-pointers by Justin Mitchell and Hobbs, while Coker missed its first three shots before a layup by Glenn Bynum brought the Cobras within 6-2 with 17:43 left. Tusculum went three minutes without a point before a basket from Brandon Mitchell gave the Pioneers an 8-5 lead with 15:17 to go. Coker would then go three minutes without scoring until a layup from Jones cut the Tusculum advantage to 13-9 with 11:54 remaining, sparking a 9-2 run that saw the Cobras take their first lead at 16-15 on a dunk by Snell with 9:37 to play in the half.
Coker took its largest lead of the game at 20-17 on a steal and dunk by Raymond Bellamy with 8:41 remaining in the half, but the Cobras would go more than six minutes without a field goal as a basket by Brandon Mitchell put Tusculum back ahead for good at 24-22 with 5:03 left in the half. The Cobras would climb back within a point at 26-25 on a free throw by Snell with 1:50 to go, but a basket from Justin Mitchell and two free throws by Gibson helped Tusculum to a 31-29 lead at halftime.
Gibson led the Pioneers with nine points in the first half along with four rebounds, while Justin Mitchell had seven points and Brandon Mitchell added six along with five rebounds. Tusculum shot 41.4 percent (12-for-29) from the field in the half, going 4-for-11 from three-point range and 3-for-7 at the foul line. Onyeodi led the Cobras with nine points and Jones added eight, as Coker hit 52.4 percent (11-for-21) from the field but turned the ball over 10 times while being outrebounded by Tusculum 18-11.
Tusculum came out of the locker room and scored the first eight points of the second half, including four points from Brandon Mitchell, to go ahead 39-29 on a putback by Hobbs with 17:03 left. Coker was held scoreless until Onyeodi hit two free throws with 16:31 left to bring the Cobras back within 39-31, and the Cobras got their first field goal of the half on a layup by Onyeodi with 15:20 left. Tusculum led 45-33 following two free throws from James West with 14:54 remaining, but a quick 5-0 spurt from Onyeodi brought the Cobras back within 45-38 with 13:41 left. Leading 49-40, Tusculum would hold Coker scoreless for three minutes as Legiste hit a three-pointer and followed with a layup for a 54-40 Pioneer lead with 11:13 left.
Coker would whittle the Tusculum lead to 58-50 on two free throws from Snell with 5:31 to play, but a big three-pointer from Gibson stretched the Tusculum lead back to 11 at 63-52 with 3:24 left. Two foul shots from Onyeodi with 3:09 remaining brought Coker within single digits for the final time, as Tusculum would score seven straight on a layup by Brandon Mitchell, a three from Hobbs and a steal and layup by Gibson with 1:48 to go. The game-closing run would reach 11-3 as Zack Dixon added two free throws with 1:21 left and Kobe Funderburk capped the scoring with a steal and layup with 1:11 left.
The double-double from Brandon Mitchell was the 14th of his career, and he recorded three offensive rebounds to move into a tie for second place on the SAC career offensive rebound list with Ryan Pitts of Lenoir-Rhyne (2000-04) with 325. Odell Turner of Wingate (2009-13) is the conference career leader in offensive boards with 364.
Tusculum will play its next three games at Pioneer Arena to close the month of January, starting Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. against Queens. The Royals, ranked 13th in the latest NABC Division II poll, saw their six-game winning streak end on Saturday with an 83-74 loss at 14th-ranked Lincoln Memorial. Queens, which dropped to 13-3 overall and third place in the SAC with a 9-3 record, will seek to avenge an 81-74 Tusculum win in Charlotte on Dec. 1 in the first meeting of the season between the teams.
