GREENEVILLE, Tenn. — Tusculum University’s Amari Allen accounted for 16 points, eight rebounds and six assists to lead the Pioneers to a 98-74 victory over visiting Alice Lloyd College Monday morning at Pioneer Arena in exhibition action.
Monday’s exhibition was part of the third annual Jack Kilday Education Game as the Pioneers invited area elementary school students to the game as 1,794 fans were in attendance.
Tusculum had four players score in double figures led by Bryce Jackson‘s game-high 17 markers as he went 6-of-9 from the floor, while Jordan Attia and Jeremiah Wilson contributed 13 and 11 points, respectively.
The Eagles were led in scoring by Jackson Tackett with his 16 points, while Daniel Carmical tallied 15 points on his five 3-pointers off the bench.
Despite being an exhibition, the contest was a feisty one which included 38 combined fouls as well as three technical fouls and one flagrant foul.
Tusculum opened the contest on a 30-11 run in the first 12:11 of the game. TU would maintain the double-digit lead throughout the first half and took a 49-33 advantage into the locker room.
The Eagles started the second half on a 7-2 run including a Hatchett triple to trim the deficit to 11 (51-40).
Tusculum pushed the lead back out to 15 points (55-40) following baskets by Attia and Jackson.
Alice Lloyd made its biggest push of the day as the Eagles mounted an 18-7 spurt over a seven-minute span to cut the TU lead down to 62-58 with 9:27 remaining.
Tusculum scored seven straight sparked by a three-pointer from Emmanuel James and consecutive buckets from Allen as the Pioneers led 69-58 with 8:16 to go.
Carmical drained a three-pointer to get to within eight and the Eagles cut the deficit to nine on three more occasions including 79-70 with 4:43 on the clock.
But the Pioneers scored nine unanswered points to lead by 19 (89-70) and put the game away with a 5-0 run in the final 1:26 to secure the win.
Tusculum finished the game shooting 48 percent from the floor including 9-of-26 from three-point territory. TU also went to the foul line 26 times and shot 81 percent (21-of-26) from the charity stripe.
Sixteen Pioneers saw action in Monday’s exhibition including a dozen who worked their way into the scoring column including the duo of Reed Ownby and Naim Ibroci who tallied nine points apiece.
Tusculum out-rebounding Alice Lloyd by a 37-33 margin as Tusculum forced 21 turnovers thanks to 16 steals.
The Pioneers will open the regular-season next Friday (Nov. 13) against Clayton State University in the Southeast Region Challenge in Hickory, North Carolina.
