GREENEVILLE, Tenn. - With 10 different Trojans scoring on the night, headlined by senior guard Sierra Simpson's 14 points, Anderson University women's basketball clinched at least a share of the South Atlantic Conference regular-season championship with a 69-51 victory over Tusculum Wednesday evening at Pioneer Arena.
The triumph hands the Trojans their second SAC regular-season championship in three seasons and improves their overall record to 22-3 and 19-2 in conference play. The win also increases their current winning streak to 15 straight, marking their longest since the 2007-08 campaign. A game ahead of second-place Wingate in the current SAC standings, AU has a chance to claim the regular-season title out-right this weekend with a win.
As a team, Anderson shot 43.5 percent (27-for-62) from the floor and held Tusculum to just 25.4 percent (17-for-67), including a 1-for-8 performance (12.5 percent) from behind the 3-point line. Leading the Trojan attack was Simpson with a game-high 14 points on 6-of-12 shooting. Simpson was followed by Lesley Woods with 12 points, all coming from behind the arc, and junior Jasmine Franklin with 10 points, on 5-for-5 shooting, and seven rebounds.
Senior Jaclyn Moore and sophomore Nakia Young, who came off the bench for the Trojans, added eight points apiece, while sophomore forward Alexis Dillard was a key contributor on the board with a team-high nine rebounds. Overall, the Trojans won the battle of the boards, 54-36, marking the fifth time this season AU has pulled down 50 or more rebounds for a game.
Tusculum placed three players in double figures, as guard Shynese Whitener posted a team-high 12 points, while teammates Rainey Story and Blakeley Burleson added 10 points apiece. Forward Kristen McMillion totaled just two points, but led the team underneath the basket with a game-high 11 rebounds.
After TC's Briana Mitchell scored the first field goal of the game, Anderson fired back with four straight points from Simpson and Franklin that would give the visitors a lead they would not relinquish. The back-to-back baskets began a 15-4 run over the next six minutes that would give the Trojans a quick 18-6 advantage at the 13-minute mark. Woods and Young highlighted the spurt with matching 3-pointers.
Anderson maintained its double-figure lead for just over seven minutes, including taking a 17-point advantage at the 9:43 mark when Young converted on a traditional three-point play, pushing the score to 27-10.
With the momentum in favor of the Trojans, Tusculum began to claw itself back into the game and scored the next 10 points, and brought the score to 27-20 with 6:40 left in the opening period. Burleston shined on the run with a 3-pointer, followed by an old-fashioned three-point play to give her six straight points during the run.
Woods snapped the Pioneer run with a 3-pointer from the top of the key that handed AU a 10-point lead. Following a Story jumper on the ensuing possession, sophomore guard Heather Jankowy capitalized on a traditional three-point of her own to put AU in the lead at 33-22 at the 3:19 mark.
Despite the convincing advantage, the three points from Jankowy would be the final time the Trojans would score in the opening half. TC made the most of the Anderson scoring drought and totaled the half's final six points and set the halftime score at 33-28.
"We had a great start to the game," AU head coach Jimmy Garrity said. "But then we went about five minutes where we did not play very well. Give Tusculum a lot of credit for playing hard and making plays during that stretch."
In the opening moments of the second half, the Pioneers closed the gap to six on two occasions, but could not complete the comeback, as the six-point deficit would be the closest the hosts would come for the remainder of the game. With the Trojans leading 32-28, Woods knocked in another trey that put Anderson ahead by three possessions.
After Dillard scored inside the paint to put AU back up by nine with 15 minutes remaining, Moore buried back-to-back field goals to begin a streak of six unanswered points by the Trojans that sent the score to 49-36 with less than 13 minutes to play.
Anderson held onto its double-figure lead for the remainder of the contest, eventually going up by 21 when a steal by Simpson led to a fast-break lay-in from Franklin, setting the score at 66-45 with four minutes to play. Moore added the final field goal of the game with just seconds on the clock that set the final score at 69-51.
"This was a really good road win in a tough environment," Garrity said. "I was really proud of the way we handled the second half by doing a much better job defensively and guarding the ball. We look forward to returning to Abney for the season finale and final home game for our senior class."
Anderson seeks the out-right regular-season championship when it returns home for Senior Day when it hosts Queens on Saturday. Tip-off from the Abney Athletic Center is set for 2 p.m.
