GREENEVILLE, Tenn. — Five players reached double figures for Lenoir-Rhyne University in a 109-71 victory over Tusculum University in South Atlantic Conference women’s basketball Saturday afternoon at Pioneer Arena.
Aaliyah El had a game-high 18 points and eight rebounds and Madilyn Winterton added 17 points and seven rebounds off the bench for the Bears (12-4, 8-2 SAC), who moved into a four-way tie for first place in the conference with the victory. Elyseia Brown had 14 points and Tatum Bowen and Amiya Porter had 12 points each for Lenoir-Rhyne, who shot 44.4 percent (40-for-90) from the field and sank 14 three-pointers in 37 attempts while outrebounding the Pioneers 54-35.
Josie Horner scored a career-best 15 points to lead the Pioneers (1-15, 1-9 SAC) with 14 points each from Abbi Douglas and Ema Nagyova. Martina Garofalo added 11 points for the Pioneers, who also shot 44.4 percent (28-for-63) from the field but turned the ball over 27 times which led to 39 points for the Bears. Nagyova hit three three-pointers for the Pioneers, and Aisha Patel led Tusculum with six rebounds.
The Bears led 25-11 after one quarter and built a 61-31 lead at halftime. Lenoir-Rhyne led by as many as 50 points late in the third quarter before Tusculum won the fourth quarter by a 23-15 margin. The Bears had 32 second-chance points off 29 offensive rebounds and held a 33-12 edge in fast break scoring in the game.
Horner’s 15 points came on 7-for-14 shooting and surpassed her previous high of 13 points set against Carson-Newman on Feb. 12 of last season. She was 7-for-14 from the field, including a three-pointer, and grabbed four rebounds while adding two assists, two steals and two blocked shots. Douglas was 6-for-12 from the field for the Pioneers while Garofalo was 5-for-7 from the floor and Nagyova shot 4-for-8.
Abigail Brown led all players with 11 rebounds for the Bears, with six boards from Trista Charles. Porter was 4-for-9 on three-pointers for the Bears, with Elyseia Brown hitting 3-for-8 and Bowen 3-for-9. Lenoir-Rhyne was 15-for-20 at the foul line as a team, while Tusculum shot 8-for-13 at the stripe.
Tusculum will remain home to take on Emory & Henry on Wednesday, Jan. 21 beginning at 5:30 p.m. at Pioneer Arena. The Wasps lost 76-69 at home to Wingate on Saturday to fall to 4-12 overall and 2-8 in conference play.
