Rob Troutman scored a team-high 16 points and Tommy Klempin added 14 to help Tusculum College to a 53-44 victory over Lenoir-Rhyne University in a South Atlantic Conference men's basketball game Wednesday night at Pioneer Arena.

Troutman went 5-for-8 from the field and 3-for-5 from three-point range while Klempin was a perfect 4-for-4 from the field for Tusculum, which is tied for second place in the SAC at 6-3 with Anderson and is 9-10 overall. The Bears dropped their ninth straight contest and dropped to 2-15 overall and 1-8 in the SAC.

As a team, the Pioneers shot 58.1 percent (18-for-31) from the field and never trailed en route to their fifth win in their last six games. Tusculum shot a sizzling 75 percent (9-for-12) from the field in the first half, paced by Troutman who went 5-for-5 (3-for-3 on three-pointers) and scored 14 points.

Allan Jones led the Bears with 16 points while R.J. McClure scored all of his 13 points in the second half to help the Bears cut a 16-point deficit to three with 3:31 left. However, the Pioneers put the game away at the foul line by going 6-for-7 in the final three minutes.

Tusculum, which entered the game leading the SAC in rebounding defense at just 26.3 rebounds allowed per game, improved on those numbers by permitting Lenoir-Rhyne to tally just 13 boards in the contest. Meanwhile, the Pioneers scooped up 26 rebounds as Justin Steigerwald and Kevin Vest led all players with seven caroms apiece.

A pair of three-pointers by Troutman, one as part of a four-point play, and a trey from Ryan Slusher helped Tusculum build a 16-6 lead with 9:55 left in the opening half. Lenoir-Rhyne chopped the margin to four points as Jones scored on a layup with 8:23 left in the half, but the Pioneers closed the half on a 12-3 run to take a 28-15 lead into intermission. Troutman nearly outscored the entire Bear roster in the first half as he tallied 14 points, while Klempin added six points.

Tusculum's lead expanded to 35-19 following a layup by Klempin with 18:05 left, and the lead held in double figures until the eight-minute mark, when back-to-back three-pointers by McClure brought the Bears within 45-40 with 6:30 left. Tusclum's scoreless drought would reach 5 1/2 minutes as a layup by Jones trimmed the Pioneer lead to 45-42 with 3:31 left.

A technical foul against the Lenoir-Rhyne bench resulted in two foul shots by Troutman at the 3:00 mark to give Tusculum a 47-42 lead, and Steigerwald followed with a layup just seconds later to extend the Pioneer lead to 49-42. Lenoir-Rhyne would get no closer than five the rest of the way, as the Jones basket at 3:31 would be the squad's final field goal of the night.

After shooting just 31.8 percent from the field in the first half, Lenoir-Rhyne stepped up its shooting in the second half, hitting 57.1 percent (8-for-14) to finish at 41.7 percent (15-for-36) in the game. Tusculum committed 19 turnovers which led to 17 Bear points, while Lenoir-Rhyne made just nine miscues as a team.

Tusculum entered the night in a five-way tie for second place in the SAC with a 5-3 record, but remains deadlocked with only Anderson at 6-3 after Wingate, Brevard and Carson-Newman all lost to slip to 5-4 in the league. The Pioneers close out a four-game homestand on Saturday afternoon as Newberry visits Pioneer Arena for a 4 p.m. tipoff to open the second half of conference play.