Tusculum Knocks Off Lenoir-Rhyne In Food Lion SAC Women’s Basketball Tournament

HICKORY, N.C. --- South Atlantic Conference Player of the Year Jasmine Gunn turned in her fifth straight 20-point game to lead the fourth-seeded Tusculum College women's basketball team to a 77-63 win over top-seeded No. 24 Lenoir-Rhyne University in the semifinal round of the 2010 Food Lion South Atlantic Conference Tournament on Saturday evening in CVCC Arena. The win propels the Pioneers into the championship game for the third straight season, and marks their first victory over a ranked opponent this year.

Tusculum (19-9) forced 14 Lenoir-Rhyne (21-7) turnovers, converting those miscues into 18 points. The Bears edged the Pioneers on the glass by a 44-43 margin, including a 13-8 advantage on the offensive boards. Tusculum knocked down 44.3 percent of its attempts from the floor, including a 46.2 percent clip from behind the arc (6-for-13), while holding the Bears to a 38.8 percent mark from the field.

Gunn led all scorers with 27 points, converting 12-of-15 attempts at the free throw line while recording three steals. The 4-11 All-American is now just nine points shy of becoming the sixth player in program history to reach the 1,500-point plateau, currently sitting sixth on the school's all-time scoring list with 1,491 career points.

Freshman Kendal Baxter connected on 5-of-9 attempts from behind the arc to record 17 points, and set a program rookie record with 88 three-pointers so far this season. Junior Catherine Hintz joined Gunn and Baxter in double figures, recording her sixth double-double of the season with 16 points and a game-high 10 rebounds, while senior Kat Spears chipped in 14 points and eight rebounds. Jasmine Parker also dished out a season-high nine assists for the Pioneers.

Lenoir-Rhyne's Amber Holt drives against Tusculum in Saturday's game.

Lenoir-Rhyne placed four players in double figures, led by senior Amber Holt, who connected on 7-of-14 attempts from the floor to record 14 points on the night. Jami Safrit poured in 13 points, including a trio of three-pointers, while Denise Moore and Cameron Sealey chipped in 10 markers each. Brittany Mitch also grabbed a game-high 10 rebounds, while Holt led all players with four steals.

The Bears jumped out to an early lead in the first half, scoring 13 of the first 21 points to open a 13-8 advantage on a jumper by Moore with 15:27 to go in the period. Tusculum responded with a quick 5-0 spurt, knotting the score at 13-13 on Baxter's first three-pointer of the game with 15:03 left in the half.

Lenoir-Rhyne answered with an 8-0 run to open its largest lead of the game with 12:19 to go in the half, taking a 21-13 advantage on a jumper by Holt. The Pioneers battled back, launching an 8-0 run of their own to tie the game at 21-21 before closing out the half with a 16-9 spurt over the final seven and a half minutes to head into the intermission with a 41-34 lead.

The Pioneers continued to dictate the tempo in the opening minutes of the second half, extending the lead to 57-42 with a 16-8 run over the first ten minutes of the period, which was capped by Baxter's fourth three-pointer of the game with 9:52 to play. Tusculum would hold the double-digit lead for the remainder of the contest to punch its ticket to Sunday's championship game with its second straight win over Lenoir-Rhyne.

Tusculum returns to the court Sunday in the tournament championship against the winner of the second women's semifinal between No. 2 seed Newberry College and No. 3 seed Carson-Newman College. Lenoir-Rhyne now awaits word on a possible at-large bid to next weekend's NCAA Division II Southeast Regional. The 64-team field will be announced via live webcast through ncaa.com Sunday night at 9 p.m.

Quotes:

Lenoir-Rhyne head coach Todd Starkey

"I thought Tusculum did a great job and had a good game plan against us. We didn't get a lot of good looks, and when we did, we didn't finish. It was a bad scenario against a good team that had a good game plan against us.

"When you have a 6-foot-8 girl who is hard to stop two feet from the basket, and a 4-foot-11 girl you can't find on the floor, it's a coaching nightmare. When you're not making shots, it's the perfect storm. We are going to try to forget this game as much as we can and as quickly as we can."

Tusculum head coach Adell Harris

"Our girls really dug in defensively when we needed to and when it mattered. Jasmine Gunn has been on fire the last month and a half, and has taken her game to an entirely new level."

"No one in the country can guard Catherine Hintz when she's focused on what she can do. We are tough to beat when both of them (Hintz and Gunn) are on top of their game. I am looking forward to continuing our postseason run, hopefully deep into the NCAA Tournament. That is what it is all about. It is March. We are going to leave it all out there and see what happens."

At Hickory, N.C. (CVCC Arena)
TUSCULUM 77, LENOIR-RHYNE 63
TUSCULUM (19-9)
Gunn,Jasmine 7-22 12-15 27; Baxter,Kendal 5-9 2-2 17; Hintz,Catherine 8-13
0-0 16; Spears,Kat 6-6 2-5 14; Parker,Jasmine 1-7 0-0 2; Hicks,Staci 0-1 1-2
1; Oliver,Brittni 0-3 0-0 0. Totals 27-61 17-24 77.
LENOIR-RHYNE (21-7)
Holt, Amber 7-14 0-2 14; Safrit, Jami 4-12 2-7 13; Sealey, Cameron 4-9 2-2
10; Moore, Denise 5-8 0-2 10; Rann, LaCourtney 3-9 3-5 9; Mitch, Brittany
3-11 0-0 7; Fulmer, Kristen 0-2 0-0 0; Kremer, Jacquelyn 0-1 0-0 0; Elkins,
Precious 0-1 0-0 0; Webster, Meredith 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 26-67 7-18 63.
Tusculum...................... 41 36 - 77
Lenoir-Rhyne.................. 34 29 - 63
3-point goals--Tusculum 6-13 (Baxter,Kendal 5-9; Gunn,Jasmine 1-3;
Oliver,Brittni 0-1), Lenoir-Rhyne 4-19 (Safrit, Jami 3-7; Mitch, Brittany
1-3; Rann, LaCourtney 0-2; Fulmer, Kristen 0-1; Sealey, Cameron 0-2; Holt,
Amber 0-4). Fouled out--Tusculum-None, Lenoir-Rhyne-Sealey, Cameron.
Rebounds--Tusculum 43 (Hintz,Catherine 10), Lenoir-Rhyne 44 (Mitch, Brittany
10). Assists--Tusculum 16 (Parker,Jasmine 9), Lenoir-Rhyne 10 (Holt, Amber
5). Total fouls--Tusculum 19, Lenoir-Rhyne 22. Technical
fouls--Tusculum-None, Lenoir-Rhyne-None. A-650