YOUNG HARRIS, Ga. --- Alyssa Walker led four players in double figures with a game-high 16 points as the Tusculum University women's basketball team defeated Young Harris College 61-46 on the opening day of the YHC Classic Saturday afternoon at the Harp Recreation & Commencement Center.
Jami Tham recorded her fifth double-double in as many game with 14 points and 10 rebounds, Deidre Cheremond added 13 points and 10 rebounds off the bench and Mya Belton contributed 10 points and seven boards for the Pioneers (4-1), who held the Mountain Lions (2-1) to 30.6 percent shooting for the game and led by as many as 19 points in the second half after falling behind by seven in the opening minutes.
Kalen Surles was the only player to reach double figures for Young Harris, scoring 12 points, while Mackenzie Johnson had nine points and nine rebounds and Dustie Obah added nine points and six boards. The Pioneers, who outrebounded the Mountain Lions by a 41-35 margin, also limited Young Harris to 4-for-16 shooting from three-point range in the game.
Walker shot 6-for-8 from the field and made a career-high four three-pointers in six attempts for the Pioneers, coming up one point shy of her career high of 17 set against Queens on Dec. 1 of last season. Over the last three games, Walker is shooting 9-for-15 (60 percent) from beyond the arc and averaging 13.0 points per game over that stretch.
Tham was 7-for-11 from the floor and grabbed her 10th rebound in the final minute to give her five double-doubles in a row, the longest streak for the Pioneers since Maddie Sutton had 16 straight during the 2020-21 season. Cheremond, who played just 14 minutes, earned her second straight double-double and third of the season with 14 points and 10 boards.
Blayre Shultz added eight points, six rebounds and five assists while Sophie Henry added six assists and four steals in 38 minutes for Tusculum, whose defense limited Young Harris' leading scorer JaMari Frederick to five points on 2-for-11 shooting.
A three-pointer by Belton on the opening possession of the game stood as the only points for nearly 2 1/2 minutes, as Young Harris missed its first four shots before a jumper by Surles kicked off a 10-0 run for the Mountain Lions. Meanwhile, Tusculum missed six straight shots and had four turnovers before Walker hit back-to-back threes to pull the Pioneers within 10-9 with 3:25 left in the first quarter. Five points from Shultz in the final minute in the frame would give the Pioneers a 16-12 lead after the opening period.
Tusculum led 21-18 following a basket by Obah with 6:24 left in the first half, but that would be the final scoring of the quarter for the Mountain Lions as Young Harris would miss its final nine shots of the period. The Pioneers ran off 14 straight points, coming on eight consecutive points from Cheremond followed by six in a row by Tham to end the half with a 35-18 advantage.
Walker led the Pioneers with nine points on 3-for-4 from three-point range in the first half, with eight points and seven rebounds from Tham and eight points and five boards from Cheremond. Tusculum shot 43.8 percent (14-for-32) and went 6-for-14 from three-point range in the opening half. The Mountain Lions shot just 24.1 percent (7-for-29) from the field and went 3-for-6 at the foul line as a team, with Johnson the only player with more than one field goal in the half on 2-for-9 shooting.
The Pioneers took their largest lead of the game at 44-25 following a three-pointer from Walker with 5:09 left in the third quarter. The Mountain Lions shot 3-for-4 from three-point range in the third quarter, which enabled them to maintain their 17-point deficit heading to the fourth quarter at 52-35.
Tusculum went 5 1/2 minutes without a point following a layup by Walker with 8:32 left, but Young Harris managed just five points during the Pioneers' scoring drought. Young Harris would get no closer than 12 points at 58-46 following a putback by Obah with 2:04 left, as a basket by Tham with 1:35 remaining and a foul shot from Belton with 38 seconds to go would help the Pioneers close out the win.
The Pioneers finished the game with 15 turnovers, while the Mountain Lions had 12 turnovers as a team. Tusculum shot 7-for-12 from the foul line, including 6-for-10 in the second half, while Young Harris went to the stripe once in the second half and only seven times in the contest, making four.
Tusculum will face Georgia College on the second day of the YHC Classic, beginning at noon on Sunday. The Bobcats improved their record to 6-0 with a 77-54 win over Emory & Henry in Saturday's nightcap. The Bobcats are sixth in this week's D2SIDA Southeast Region poll while the Pioneers are ranked eighth.
