HARROGATE, Tenn. — Lincoln Memorial’s Nate Mims scored a game-high 19 points to lead the Railsplitters to a 67-60 win over visiting Tusculum Wednesday night at Tex Turner Arena.
LMU (8-5, 4-3 SAC) has won four of its last five contests, while ending the Pioneers’ (7-6, 3-4 SAC) three-game winning streak.
The Railsplitters used a smothering defense that forced Tusculum into a season-high 22 turnovers including a dozen in the second half.
LMU’s Jayde Spearman poured in four 3-pointers as he finished with 16 points off the bench while Amhad Jarrard and Emmanuel James accounted for nine points each in the Railsplitters’ 23rd straight home victory over Tusculum, dating back to 2005.
TU’s TJ Printup collected 13 points, eight rebounds and four steals while Amari Allen added a dozen markers, nine boards and five assists in the loss. Jordan Attia added 10 points, while Bryce Jackson finished with seven.
Jackson’s layup with 6.4 seconds remaining was the 1,000th point of his career at Tusculum, becoming only the 30th player in program history to achieve that milestone.
Tusculum took an early 18-12 in the first half following a three-pointer by Malachi Hale at the 11:50 mark. LMU responded with an 11-0 run over a 5:14 span to take a 23-18 advantage.
With LMU ahead 24-20, the Pioneers answered with a 9-0 spurt over the next 2:47 with J3 Swindell scoring four points during the run as TU led 29-24. Spearman hit back-to-back triples to finish off the period as Tusculum led 33-32 at halftime.
In the second half with Tusculum up 37-34, LMU went on an 8-0 run thanks to dunks by James and Jarrard as the Splitters led 42-37 with 16:31 to go.
TU answered with 6-2 run which was capped off by another Hale three-pointer as Tusculum regained the lead at 45-44 with 13:43 remaining.
James hit back-to back layups as LMU regained the advantage at 48-45 with 12 minutes to go.
With the Railsplitters ahead 50-49, LMU went on a 7-1 run over a 1:52 span thanks to back-to-back 3-pointers from Spearman as the hosts swelled its lead to 58-50 with 7:52 remaining.
Printup cut the deficit in half with his consecutive layups as LMU led 58-54 with 5:21 remaining. But a key 7-0 run over run which included a dunk and three-pointer by Mims gave the Splitters it largest lead of the game at 65-54 with 3:27 to go to put the game out of reach.
LMU finished the game shooting 48 percent from the field while Tusculum shot 39.6 percent including 8-of-24 from the field in the second half (33%). Tusculum out-rebounded LMU by a 36-24 margin, but scored 19 points off of TU’s miscues.
The Pioneers continued its solid play from the free throw line going 14-of-17 (82%).
Tusculum will travel to the Electric City on Saturday to take on undefeated and fourth-ranked Anderson for a 4 p.m. contest at the Abney Athletic Center.
