JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. — The ETSU men’s basketball team used a 27-6 run in the second half to lead the Buccaneers to a 78-62 win over visiting Tusculum Sunday afternoon at Freedom Hall.
Sunday’s contest was an exhibition game for the Pioneers (4-4) while it was a counter for ETSU (8-2).
Brayden Crump led the Bucs with his 15 points while Isa Sutherland added 13 markers in the victory. Jordan McCullum finished with a dozen points and Brian Taylor tallied 11.
The Tusculum duo of J3 Swindell and TJ Printup scored 12 and 10 points respectively, while Naim Ibroci poured in three 3-pointers for his nine points.
The game was close throughout most of the first half as TU freshman Reed Ownby converted a layup as the Pioneers trailed 17-14 with 9:13 on the clock. ETSU went on a 15-3 run to take its largest lead of the half at 32-17 with 1:35. But the Pioneers scored nine straight points over span of 50 seconds thanks a pair of three-pointers from Ibroci and sophomore Denaj Kimber as TU trimmed the deficit to single-digits at 32-23. Southerland hit a triple just before halftime as the Bucs took a 35-23 lead into the locker room.
Tusculum opened the second period on a 9-1 spurt highlighted by back-to-back buckets from Printup including a dunk as TU trailed 36-32 with 16:29 remaining.
But ETSU went on a 27-6 run over the next seven minutes to take a 63-38 lead with 9:16 on the clock.
The Bucs increased its lead out to as much as 28 (70-42), but the Pioneers outscored ETSU 20-8 over the final 6:14 to trim the final deficit to a 16-point margin.
The Bucs finished the game shooting 47.6 percent while out-rebounding the Pioneers by a narrow 43-40 margin. TU went 25-of-71 (35%) for the game while knocking down 10 three-pointers.
Tusculum returns to action on Wednesday when they host Carson-Newman for a 7:30 p.m. South Atlantic Conference contest at Pioneer Arena.
