Brevard, N.C. – The Brevard College men’s basketball team played their first home game of the young 2007-08 season on Saturday afternoon, as they opened up their South Atlantic Conference play against the Pioneers of Tusculum College. The Tornados fought hard but could not pull of a comeback victory on Saturday, ultimately falling to the Pioneers of Tusculum, 75-64.

 

The loss drops the Tornados to 1-5 on the year, while Tusculum improves to 2-4 overall with the win.

 

The visiting Pioneers took an early 3-0 lead with a three-point basket by Jimmy Boone and would not look back leading from that point on, holding off numerous runs by the Tornados’ offense. 

 

For the first half, the Tornados never fell behind the Pioneers more than 9 points and even cut the lead as close as 2 points on numerous occasions, but couldn’t quite take the lead, as Tusculum took a 32-28 lead into the halftime intermission.

 

In the second half, BC again would keep things close but couldn’t put together a run to pull ahead as the Pioneers hit clutch buckets throughout the final 20 minutes to ward off the BC offensive surges.

 

The Tornados would cut the lead to 7 points, 62-55, with only 2:19 remaining in the game, when Division I transfer Kyle Moore stepped up to free throw line and made all three free throws to push the Pioneer lead to 65-55.

 

Tusculum’s Moore would go 10-of-10 from the free-throw line in the final 2:00 minutes of play, to help secure the win 75-64 victory over the Tornados.

 

BC was led by sophomore Jonathan Whitson, who had 21 points and five rebounds for the game. Fellow classmate Shane Galloway came off the bench to score a season-high 18 points, going 3-of-5 from behind the three-point arc.

 

Tusculum was led by Jordan Lear, who had a career-high 33 points on the afternoon, as he connected on 7-of-13 three-pointers for the game. Moore had 14 points for the game, going 11-of-11 from the charity stripe, while Boone had 10 points.

 

The Tornados will again be at home on Tuesday, December 4, when they will host Lees-McRae College at Boshamer Gymnasium. The game is scheduled for a 7:30 p.m. start time.

 

###