Men’s Basketball Wins on Senior Day

MARS HILL, N.C. - The Lions' men's basketball team beat Tusculum, 75-67 Saturday evening in Stanford Arena on Senior Day. Julian Mack, Dion Malachi and Barry Rice played their final game in Stanford Arena. Sammy Emile scored a season high 34 points in the win.

Emile was 8-13 from the floor, 4-6 from behind the arc and 14-17 from the foul line. Malachi scored 12 points, pulled down six rebounds and tied his career high seven blocks in the win. Dallas Johnson rounded out the double-digit scorers for MHC with 14. He hit a career best four 3-pointers in the victory. Mack led the Lions' defense with four steals to go along with five points and the same number of rebounds.

Rob Troutman led Tusculum with 19 points and six boards while Kevin Vest added 14 points and eight rebounds. Tommy Klempin recorded 12 points and eight rebounds while going 8-10 at the foul line. Vest was 6-6 at the charity stripe. TC out rebounded Mars Hill, 39-33.

Emile hit a long-range 3-pointer 12 seconds into the contest and the Lions (10-16/7-11 SAC) never trailed the Pioneers (11-17/8-10 SAC) the rest of the way. MHC led by as many as 13 points (25-12) with 3:16 left in the first half after Emile hit another shot from behind the arc. The Lions enjoyed a 10-point advantage (30-20) at the intermission.

Solid shooting helped MHC keep the lead in the final period. After leading by 10 with 10:26 left in regulation, TC began chipping away at the lead. The Pioneers cut the deficit to six points (49-43) with 7:02 on the clock after Klempin nailed a pair of foul shots. MHC answered going on a 13-8 run to take an 11-point (62-51) lead into the final 3:34 of the contest.

The Pioneers went on a 16-9 of their own to cut the lead to just four points (71-67) when Vest connected on a couple of free throws with 27 ticks remaining. TC was forced to foul and Emile was able to make his foul shots to go ahead 73-67 with 23 seconds on the clock. Malachi blocked Troutman's 3-point attempt at the other end of the floor and then Johnson found Emile down court for dunk with five seconds left in the game that made the final tally, 75-67.