GREENEVILLE, TN - There may not be a hotter team in the country than the Lenoir-Rhyne women's basketball team. Coach Emry Tsitouris and her squad took down Tusculum 109-71 on Saturday, making it seven straight victories for the Bears. 

As has been the norm this season, it was a balanced scoring effort for the Bears. Aaliyah El led the team with 18 points while freshman Madilyn Winterton came off the bench to set a new career high with 17 points.

INSIDE THE MATCHUP:
Final: Lenoir-Rhyne 109,  Tusculum 71
Records: Lenoir-Rhyne (12-4, 8-2 SAC), Tusculum (1-15, 1-9 SAC)
Location: Greeneville, Tenn. | Pioneer Arena

STORY OF THE GAME:

• Lenoir-Rhyne opened the game with a 5-0 lead thanks to buckets from Abigail Brown and Elyseia Brown. 
• A Ralee Bare three gave the Bears their first double-digit lead of the game, 21-11, with 1:10 left in the first quarter.
• Madilyn Winterton hit a three at the buzzer to put Lenoir-Rhyne up 25-11 after one.
• The Bears dominated the second quarter, outscoring their counterparts 36-20 to take a 61-31 lead into the break.
• Amiya Porter capped off a 10-0 run to start the third with one of her four made threes.
• Jodi King put Lenoir-Rhyne up 50 (90-40) with a layup late in the third.
• Madelyn Caron gave the Bears their third 100 point outing of the season with a layup midway through the fourth.

STATS OF THE GAME:

• Aaliyah El scored her team leading 18 points on 6-15 from the field and 6-6 from the charity stripe.
• Madilyn Winterton (17), Elyseia Brown (14), Tatum Bowen (12), and Amiya Porter (12) joined El in double figures.
• Abigail Brown tied a season high with 11 rebounds.
• Lenoir-Rhyne forced 27 Pioneer turnovers, with 16 coming from steals.
• The Bears finished with more offensive rebounds (29) than defensive (25).
• Lenoir-Rhyne was 40-90 (44.4%) from the field and 14-37 (37.8%) from three.
• Tusculum was 28-63 (44.4%) from the field and 7-18 (38.9%) from three.

BEYOND THE BOXSCORE:

• Tusculum now holds a 30-29 lead in the all-time series between these two teams.
• The Bears have won their last six games against the Pioneers.
• Lenoir-Rhyne's 90 shots today came just three shy of the record of 93 set against Newberry in 2003. 
• The Bears are now forcing 21.1 turnovers per game which ranks them top 50 in the country.

UP NEXT: Lenoir-Rhyne will be back at home on Wednesday when they host Anderson, last year's SAC Tournament champions. The Trojans sport a 7-9 (3-7 SAC) record and fell 69-66 at UVA Wise earlier today. The game, which tips off at 5:30 p.m., doubles as Bears Supporting Bears and Greek Night.