James West IV poured in a game-high 24 points to lead the Tusculum men’s basketball team to a 94-85 season-opening win over USC Aiken at Pioneer Arena in day one action of the South Atlantic Conference / Peach Belt Conference Challenge.
West was one of four Pioneers in double-digit scoring as Inady Legiste and Jalen Crowder scored 15 points apiece, while Justin Mitchell added 11 markers off the bench in the Tusculum (1-0) victory.
USC Aiken (0-1) was led by Tyler Johnson’s 23-point effort, while Tehree Horn added 19 points and the duo of Daniel Parrish and Karon Boyd accounted for 12 and 11 points, respectively.
The Pioneers jumped out to a sluggish start and trailed 17-8 midway through the first half, while missing their first eight 3-point tries.
The Pacers led 19-11 with 8:46 to go in the half before Tusculum erupted for a 24-3 run over a six-minute span as TU went 11-of-14 from the floor including five 3-pointers without a miss. Tusculum would take a 42-30 lead into the locker room.
USC Aiken came out of the halftime break on fire and erased the 12-point deficit using a 15-2 run to regain the lead at 45-44 thanks to a Horn triple with 16:25 left in the game.
The Pioneers snapped the drought thanks to four points from West to take a 48-45 advantage with 15:19 left. USCA scored four in a row including buckets by Parrish and Johnson to take a 49-48 lead at the 13:47 mark.
TU used a 10-4 spurt which was capped off by an offensive rebound and put-back by freshman Kyle Brown as Tusculum opened up a five-point lead at 58-53 with 10:40 on the scoreboard.
Back-to-back USCA baskets trimmed the deficit to 58-57 before Tusculum went on a 14-5 run to push the lead out to double digits again at 72-62 on a running jumper by Mitchell with 5:14 left on the clock.
The Pacers made one final charge as Johnson converted a three-point play and later nailed a triple to cut the TU lead to 81-75 with 1:39 left. But West would score 11 of TU’s final 13 points in the last 85 seconds to hold onto the season-opening win.
West went 10-of-12 from the free throw line including eight in a row to finish his career night. He would finish the game going 6-of-11 from the floor including 2-of-3 from beyond the arc and dished out a team-high five assists.
All of Crowder’s 15 markers came from downtown, shooting 5-of-7 from long range. Brown added nine points and team-best six rebounds off the bench, while Connor Jordan tallied eight points in his Tusculum debut.
TU finished the game shooting 33-of-66 from the field for 50 percent including 9-of-22 from three-point territory (41%). The Pioneers also shot 19-of-25 from the free throw line (76%) including a sizzling 10-of-12 in the second half (83%).
USC Aiken finished the game shooting 52.7 percent from the field including 21-of-32 (66%) in the second half. The Pacers connected on 11 three-pointers and went 16-of-23 at the charity stripe (70%).
Tusculum outscored USC Aiken in the paint by a 42-24 margin as the TU defense forced 18 turnovers while committing eight on the evening.
The Pioneers will host Clayton State on Saturday at 4 p.m. to close out the SAC / PBC Challenge. Clayton State dropped its season-opener to sixth-ranked Lincoln Memorial, 97-74 in Friday’s first game of the Challenge.
