WINGATE, N.C. — Emily Hege and Hannah Clark scored 25 points apiece and Laney Beale recorded a triple-double to lift Wingate University to an 83-66 victory over Tusculum University in South Atlantic Conference women’s basketball Saturday afternoon at Cuddy Arena.
The Bulldogs (9-4, 4-1 SAC), the top three-point shooting team in Division II at 44.1 percent, went 11-for-25 (44.0 percent) from beyond the arc and 47.1 percent overall (33-for-70), while outrebounding the Pioneers by a 45-31 margin.
Simona Henshaw led the Pioneers (3-9, 1-5 SAC) with a career-high 19 points off the bench on 7-for-9 shooting from the field. Ni’Kiah Chesterfield added 11 points and Lexi Patty had a season-best 10 points for Tusculum, which shot 43.5 percent (27-for-62) from the floor.
Hege, who had a career-high 32 points in a win over Newberry on Wednesday, shot 10-for-17 from the field and hit four three-pointers while also leading all players with nine rebounds. Clark was 9-for-18 from the floor and drilled five three-pointers for Wingate, while Beale had 10 points, 10 rebounds and 11 assists for the Bulldogs, achieving the triple-double on a rebound with 4:19 left in the fourth quarter.
Henshaw’s 19 points easily surpassed her previous season high of seven points set against Georgia Southwestern on Nov. 21, as well as her college high of eight points set while playing for Florida Atlantic at Western Kentucky on Jan. 20, 2022. Eleven of her 19 points came in the third quarter.
There were six lead changes in the first three minutes of the game, until Wingate went on an 8-0 run to take a 17-9 lead on a foul shot by Clark with 2:53 left in the first half. A basket by Patty just before the end of the quarter allowed Tusculum to cut the Wingate lead to 19-15 after one.
Patty would hit a three-pointer on the first possession of the second quarter to bring the Pioneers within a point, but Wingate would use a 20-0 run to build a 42-20 lead on a three-pointer from Hege with 4:00 left in the half. Tusculum was empty on 11 straight possessions until a three-pointer from Monique Shim broke the run with 3:37 left in the half.
Wingate led 48-31 at halftime as Hege led all players with 18 points and seven rebounds and Clark added 14 points. The Bulldogs shot 59.4 percent (19-for-32) from the field and went 6-for-11 from three-point range in the half. Chesterfield paced the Pioneers with seven points in the first half with six points from Henshaw and five apiece from Shim and Patty.
The teams largely exchanged baskets in the third quarter, with Tusculum coming as close as 12 points with 3:14 left on two free throws by Henshaw that cut the Wingate lead to 60-48. Wingate would score the next seven points before baskets from Henshaw and Carleigh Wilson left the Pioneers trailing 67-52 heading to the fourth.
Wingate took its largest lead of the game at 80-57 with 4:41 left on a basket by Lia Anderson, and the Pioneers would score seven of the game’s final 10 points to cut into the final margin.
Wilson had six points and a team-high six rebounds for the Pioneers, along with a pair of steals. Chesterfield shot 5-for-9 from the field, including a three-pointer, to reach double figures for the seventh time this season. Patty’s 10 points surpassed her season high of eight points set last Saturday at Georgia Southwestern.
Tusculum will return to action in one week, when the Pioneers return home to face Limestone (7-6, 1-4 SAC) on Saturday, Jan. 13 at 2 p.m. at Pioneer Arena.
