Inady Legiste recorded 20 points and a career-high 13 rebounds to lead undefeated Tusculum to a 106-83 win over Lees-McRae Saturday afternoon at Pioneer Arena.
The Pioneers, ranked No. 5 in D2SIDA Southeast Region Poll, are off to its third 3-0 start in the last four seasons and snap a four-game losing streak to the Bobcats (2-4). The 106 points are the most scored by a TU team since the Pioneers posted 109 against UVA Wise on Nov. 24, 2020. They are also the most points scored by TU against the Bobcats since the second meeting in series in 1998.
Legiste paced four Pioneers in double figures as he went 9-of-16 from the floor and recorded three blocked shots. Justin Mitchell added 18 points, while Jalen Crowder matched a career-best 17 points while making five 3-pointers. Connor Jordan contributed a season-best 16 points while shooting 4-of-6 from the field and 7-of-7 from the free throw line to go along with four assists.
Lees-McRae’s Nico Ashley and Jaylin Stewart tallied 17 points apiece while Timon Jones added 14 markers in the loss.
Tusculum never trailed in the game and used a key 14-1 run in the final five minutes of the opening half to take a 47-31 lead at the intermission. Crowder connected on four of his five 3-pointers in the first half while Legiste had 11 points and nine rebounds at the break.
The Bobcats scored the first five points of the second half to trim the deficit to 47-36 in the opening 70 seconds of the period. Six straight by Tusculum including back-to-back layups from James West IV pushed the TU lead out to 53-36 with 17:50 remaining.
LMC responded with an 11-2 spurt which included a three-point play by Stewart and a steal and dunk from Brandon Brown to cut the TU lead to single digits to 55-47 at the 14:35 mark of the half.
Legiste answered Brown’s dunk with one of his own and capped a 5-0 spurt with his three-point play with 13:49 remaining to extend the TU lead to 61-47.
For the next four minutes, the Pioneers could not distant themselves from the Bobcats as the visitors from Dunk Mountain got as close as eight points including 71-63 with 9:04 remaining on the clock.
TU pushed its advantage out to double-digits with a 7-1 run which included a Crowder three-pointer, a Joshua Scott basket and back-to-back buckets by Mitchell as TU led 78-64 with eight minutes to go.
The Pioneers distanced themselves from the Bobcats for good with a 16-0 run over a span of 2:24 which included five straight by Mitchell and capped off by a Jordan triple as Tusculum took its largest lead of the game at 99-70 with four minutes on the scoreboard to put the game out of reach.
TU shot a season-high 53 percent from the field as they connected on 37-of-70 of its shots including 10 three-pointers. The Pioneers also went 22-of-26 from the free throw line and out-rebounded the Bobcats by a 42-27 margin including 15-8 on the offensive glass. TU also recorded 24 assists on its 37 field goals.
Tusculum will open South Atlantic Conference play next Saturday when the Pioneers travel to nationally-ranked Lincoln Memorial for a 4 p.m. contest.
