GREENEVILLE, Tenn. --- Kobe Funderburk came off the bench and scored 13 points including Tusculum's final 10 of the contest as the Pioneers led wire-to-wire in an 86-71 South Atlantic Conference win over visiting Mars Hill Thursday at Pioneer Arena.
Tusculum (18-7, 18-5 SAC) record their fourth consecutive win, all coming in the last six days. TU clinches to finish no worse than third place in the league standings, but needs either a road win on Saturday at Anderson or a Wingate loss at nationally-ranked Queens to secure the No. 3 seed in next week's SAC Tournament.
The Pioneers finished the game shooting 30-of-59 from the floor for 50.8 percent including a perfect 4-of-4 performance from Funderburk in his 10 minutes on the floor. He made three 3-pointers and went 2-of-2 at the free throw line.
Trenton Gibson tallied 13 points, five assists and two steals in his 24 minutes of action in his final regular season home came at Pioneer Arena. William Vedder tallied 11 points on 4-of-6 shooting while dishing out two assists in the victory.
Mars Hill's Isaiah Jones led all players with 23 points and nine rebounds while posting two blocked shots and two steals as the Lions end their season at 6-21 overall (6-18 SAC).
Tusculum graduate students Brandon Mitchell and James West IV scored eight points each while the TU trio of Joshua Scott, Justin Mitchell and Inady Legiste had seven points apiece. Brandon Mitchell also blocked three shots giving him 198 for his career, which are already a program record and now the sixth-most in SAC history.
The Pioneers scored the first four points of the game and took a 20-10 lead at the 10:54 mark of the half on a dunk by Legiste. The Lions cut the deficit to eight points on three occasions including 32-24 with five minutes left in the half.
Tusculum closed out the half with a 13-5 spurt to take a 45-29 lead into the locker room.
The Pioneers sprinted out to its largest lead of the game at 61-31 as TU opened with a 16-2 run in the first 4:49 of the period. The spurt included a pair of Gibson triples and dunks by Brandon Mitchell and Justin Mitchell.
Mars Hill chipped away at the deficit and would use a 30-15 run capped off by a Kadyn Dawkins three-pointer to trail 76-58 with 3:44 remaining. TU went scoreless for 5:24 as the Pioneers missed six straight shots and committed five turnovers during the drought.
But Funderburk would go on a personal 10-0 run to counter Mars Hill's hot shooting to seal the Tusculum victory. It was TU's fifth straight win over the Lions as the Black and Orange has won 12 of the last 13 meetings and haven't lost to MHU in Greeneville since 2016.
Gibson made his 500th career field goal and is two points shy of eclipsing the 1,600-point mark of his career.
Tusculum will be looking to tie a school record on Saturday at Anderson as the Pioneers will be vying for their 10th road win of the season, which would match the away victory total by the 1992-93 club. TU has won five straight over the Trojans including last month's 88-60 win in Greeneville. TU has only won three times in their 12 previous trips to the Electric City.
