Kendal Baxter scored all of her team-high 14 points in the second half as Tusculum College rallied from a 12-point halftime deficit to defeat Carson-Newman 55-51 in a South Atlantic Conference Women's basketball game Wednesday night at Pioneer Arena.

Breaira Barksdale added 12 points and five assists and Blakeley Burleson matched her season high with 10 points off the bench for the Pioneers (8-3, 2-1 SAC), who trailed 33-21 at intermission but outscored the Eagles (7-3, 1-2 SAC) 34-18 in the second half to come away with the victory.

Shyra Clark led the Eagles with a game-high 17 points, but Carson-Newman committed 26 turnovers which Tusculum was able to convert into 22 points. The Pioneers finished with a 43-40 rebounding advantage over the Eagles, including 17 offensive boards.

It was the second time in three games, and the second straight home game, that the Pioneers rallied from 12 points down in the first half to earn a victory. On Dec. 19, Tusculum erased a 20-8 Johnson C. Smith lead en route to a 52-44 victory at Pioneer Arena.

Baxter capped an 11-0 Tusculum run on a three-pointer with 7:29 left that gave the Pioneers a 47-45 lead. With Tusculum protecting a 50-49 lead, she drilled another three-pointer to extend the Pioneers' lead to 53-49 with 2:08 left.

Carson-Newman had two chances to tie or take the lead in the final minute, but missed on a three-point attempt with 32 seconds left and turned the ball over on an offensive foul with 15 seconds to play while trailing 53-51. Foul shots by Barksdale with 13 seconds left and Baxter with 11 seconds remaining sealed the victory for Tusculum.

The Eagles took an early lead but the Pioneers came back to take a 12-9 edge on a three-pointer by Burleson with 9:44 left in the first half. Carson-Newman answered with nine straight points, including a three-pointer and a jumper by Tatum Burstrom, to go on top 18-12 with 7:11 remaining in the half.

The half ended with the Eagles scoring the final six points to take a 33-21 lead to the locker room. Clark paced Carson-Newman with 11 points and five rebounds in the first half while Courdne Miles added eight points and four boards. The Pioneers, who shot 25 percent as a team (8-for-32) were paced by Burleson's 10 points along with five from Barksdale.

Tusculum scored the first seven points of the second half to chop the Carson-Newman lead to 35-28, courtesy of five quick points from Baxter on a steal and layup followed by a three-pointer. The run stretched out to 15-3 over the first 7 minutes, 16 seconds of the half, and was culminated by two free throws from Baxter to tie the game at 36-36.

Carson-Newman responded with four straight field goals, the last a three-pointer from Lacy Miller which gave the Eagles a 45-36 lead with 10:17 to go. Two foul shots from Nequoiah Anderson and a three-point play by Alishia Mosley trimmed the Carson-Newman lead to 45-41 with 9:09 remaining, and a three-pointer from Anderson at the 8:18 mark was followed on the next possession by a three from Baxter which gave Tusculum its first lead of the second half at 47-45.

The Pioneers improved their field-goal shooting in the second half, hitting 11-for-30 (36.7 percent) to finish the game at 30.6 percent (19-for-62). Tusculum was 6-for-19 from three-point range and 11-for-22 from the foul line in the contest, while Carson-Newman was 3-for-8 from beyond the arc and 16-for-24 (66.7 percent) at the stripe.

Jama Hammontree and Kristen McMillion shared the team in rebounds for the Pioneers with seven apiece, while Burleson had a career-high six boards and committed just one turnover in a career-best 33 minutes of action. McMillion added four points and two steals in 19 minutes of playing time, and Anderson ended the game with six points as the Pioneer bench outscored the Eagle reserves 23-14.

Jai Jai McLaughlin scored eight points for Carson-Newman and matched Clark for the team in rebounds with seven before fouling out in the closing seconds. Burstrom, the team's leading scorer entering the game at 13.8 points per game, scored all six of her points in the first half, including five in less than a minute during the Eagles' early 9-0 run.

The Pioneers will return to the road Saturday for a South Atlantic Conference game at Catawba, beginning at 2 p.m. Tusculum has defeated the Indians in 12 consecutive meetings dating to the 2006-07 season.