Saturday,
January 27, 2007
MARS HILL
MEN EDGE TUSCULUM 67-64
MARS HILL, N.C. --- Stoney Polite (Morganton, N.C.) scored 22 points hitting 6-of-11
three-point attempts to lead Mars Hill past Tusculum 67-64 Saturday afternoon
at Stanford Arena. MHC improves to
7-10 overall and 3-5 in the South Atlantic Conference while the Pioneers fall
to 9-10 on the season and 2-6 in the league.
Kurtis
Walford
(Vancouver, Canada) hit a 3-pointer with 10:36
left in the first half to give MHC
a 12-10 lead they would hold onto the remainder of the first half. MHC led by as many as 10 points (28-18) in the
first stanza after Andy Miller (Franklin, N.C.) hit a high percentage shot in
the lane with 3:29 left in the first period. The Lions would take a six-point
(30-24) lead into the locker room at the intermission.
Tusculum opened the second half by out scoring MHC 9-0 to take a three-point advantage (33-20)
with 18:09 left in the contest when Larry
Minnefee (Valrico,
Fla.) scored inside. The Pioneers
would go on to lead by eight points (50-42) at the 10:54 mark after Chris Poore (Greeneville, Tenn.)
hit a lay-up. MHC then out scored
the Pioneers 10-2 over the next three minutes (7:10) to take a 53-52 lead after
Thomas Moses (Madisonville, Tenn.)
hit a jumper. The lead would change hands four times before Polite put the
Lions ahead for good at the 2:43 mark by hitting a 3-pointer.
The Pioneers
turned the ball over on their next possession when Jamison McIver (Taylorsville,
N.C.) stole the ball and assisted
Polite on a lay-up at the other end of the floor to give MHC a four-point lead with 2:08 left in the game. A
three-pointer by Jordan Lear
(Zanesville, Ohio) trimmed the Lions lead to just a single point (65-64) with
33 ticks left but P.J. Gore (Little
River, S.C.) connected on a pair of free throws after being fouled on the
ensuing in-bounds pass. In the final 18 seconds of the game, Tusculum took two
3-pointers that could have sent the contest into overtime but both shots missed
their mark and MHC held on to the
67-64 victory.
The game saw
three ties and 11 lead changes. Tusculum
won the rebound battle, 36-to-33. Both teams shot basically the same from the
field. MHC hit 46.3 percent
(25-54) of their attempts while TC hit 45.3 percent (24-53) of their shots. MHC was 11-of-26 (42.3%) 3-point attempts.
Polite added six
rebounds and four assists in the win. Gore followed with 12 points and seven
boards while Chris Aline
(Reinach,
Switzerland)
added seven points and eight rebounds.
Poore led TC with 15 points and eight
rebounds. Minnefee and Serge Poppe (Charleroi, Belgium)
added 13 and 12 points in the contest, respectively.
MHC will play at Brevard College on Monday
night at 8 p.m. TC will play at Lenoir-Rhyne College
on Wednesday, also at 8 p.m.
- TC -
Newspaper Box Score
Tusculum College
vs Mars
Hill College
01/27/07 4:00
PM at Mars Hill,
NC (Stanford Arena)
At Mars Hill, NC
(Stanford Arena)
MARS HILL
COLLEGE 67, TUSCULUM COLLEGE
64
TUSCULUM COLLEGE (9-10, 2-6 SAC)
Poore, Chris 5-10 5-8 15; Minnefee,
Larry 6-11 0-0 13; Poppe, Serge 6-10 0-0 12; Lear,
Jordan 3-10 0-0 9; White, Tyler 0-1 4-6 4; Story, Gabe
1-3 1-4 3; Boone, Jimmy 1-1 0-0 2; Hobbs, Darren 1-3 0-0 2; Williams, Eric 0-1
2-2 2; Poindexter, Corey 1-3 0-0 2. Totals 24-53 12-20 64.
MARS HILL
COLLEGE (7-10, 3-5 SAC)
Polite, Stoney 8-16 0-0 22; Gore, P.J. 4-10 3-4 12; Aline, Chris 3-7 1-3 7; Pickering, Jarred 2-3 1-3 6; Walford, Kurtis 2-4 0-0 6; Moses,
Thomas 2-2 1-4 5; McIver, Jamison 2-6 0-0 5; Miller, Andy 2-2 0-0 4; Green,
Doug 0-0 0-0 0; Ammar, Tom
0-2 0-0 0; Blake, Tony 0-2 0-0 0. Totals 25-54 6-14 67.
Tusculum College.............. 24 40 - 64
Mars Hill
College............. 30 37 - 67
3-point
goals--Tusculum College 4-15 (Lear, Jordan 3-7; Minnefee,
Larry 1-4; Poindexter, Corey 0-1; Poppe, Serge 0-2; Poore, Chris 0-1), Mars Hill College 11-26 (Polite, Stoney 6-11; Walford, Kurtis 2-4; Pickering, Jarred 1-1; Gore, P.J. 1-4; McIver,
Jamison 1-3; Ammar, Tom 0-2; Blake, Tony 0-1).
Fouled
out--Tusculum College-None,
Mars Hill College-None. Rebounds--Tusculum
College 36 (Poore,
Chris 8), Mars Hill College
33 (Aline, Chris 8). Assists--Tusculum College
13 (Poore, Chris 6), Mars Hill College 14 (Polite, Stoney
4; Blake, Tony 4). Total fouls--Tusculum College 11, Mars Hill College
20. Technical fouls--Tusculum
College-None, Mars Hill College-None. A-502