The way Tusculum Coach Adell Harris sees it, the South Atlantic Conference women's race is wide open, and the Lady Pioneers' victory over Lenoir-Rhyne Monday night at Pioneer Arena put her squad right in the thick of the battle for the league title.

The Lady Pioneers watched a big 27-point lead early in the second half melt down to seven points late, but they had enough left in the tanks to beat the Bears 75-65 and improve to 5-4 in the SAC, 12-7 overall, while dropping L-R to 6-3 in the league and 13-6 overall.

"We're right where we need to be in February," Coach Harris said, "turning the corner and peaking. We can do a lot more improving. But this was a huge win tonight. It builds our confidence while some other teams are losing some close games they were winning earlier."

Newberry, after beating Carson-Newman Monday night, holds first place by a half-game in the league standings (7-2) over Catawba (6-2), who was idle Monday. Both C-N and L-R have three league losses, with the Pioneers at 5-4.

"Right now it's all about toughness," Harris added. "Anybody can beat anybody in this league."

The Pioneers got a stellar performance from junior guard Jasmine Gunn, who scored 18 points. The 4-11 Gunn also grabbed seven rebounds, had five assists and five steals and was on the floor 36 minutes. She was a perfect 8-of-8 from the foul line as the Pioneers converted a season-best 83.9 percent from the stripe in the game (26-of-31).

Gunn got good support from 6-8 junior post Catherine Hintz, who scored 15 points and had a team-best eight rebounds before fouling out with just over four minutes left in the game. Brittni Oliver also hit double figures with 12 and nailed all five of her free throw attempts.

The Pioneers were able to withstand a double-double by L-R's talented Brittany Mitch, who scored 14 points and grabbed 15 rebounds. Amber Holt also scored 14 while Jamie Safrit added 11 for the Bears.

Tusculum took the lead at 11-8 on three free throws by Oliver with 15:32 left in the opening half, and they never trailed again. TC's lead was 30-21 at intermission as the Bears shot only 28 percent from the floor in the half.

"I thought we played well defensively in the first half," Harris said. "Holding them to 21 points and 28 percent (in the half) was big."

After L-R scored the first bucket of the second half to close to 30-23, the Pioneers went on a 10-0 run, with Kendal Baxter knocking down two threes, to up their advantage. That lead continued to swell when Hintz made two straight buckets from inside the paint, giving TC its biggest lead at 27 points, 55-28, with 11:30 left.

But the Bears closed with a rush, piecing together a frantic rally in the final four minutes to carve that deficit down to 69-62 with 1:11 left when Safrit hit a three from the deep corner.

But the Pioneers were solid at the foul line in the final minute, with Jasmine Parker making 4-of-4, and TC held on for the win.