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Tusculum came out on fire and never looked back in handing the Lee men's basketball team a 79-56 loss on Monday evening from Walker Arena.

The Pioneers got off to a blistering start from beyond the arc in the first 10 minutes of the contest as they jumped out to a 21-12 lead and stretched the margin to 47-32 at the intermission break shooting 9 of 14  (64.3 percent) from 3-point distance and 19 of 31 (61.3 percent) from the field.

Donovan Donaldson got Tusculum going with 16 first half points and was a perfect 4 of 4 from deep. Donaldson ended up with 19 points and six rebounds to lead the Pioneers. Tariq Jenkins added 18 points and was perfect 8 of 8 from the charity stripe.

Despite limiting Tusculum to just 26 percent shooting in the second half the Flames were never able to overcome a double-digit lead. Lee cut the margin to 11 at 49-38 with 17:39 left in the game prompting the Pioneers to call a timeout. Out of the timeout Tusculum went on a 11-2 run over the next seven minutes to put the game out of reach.

"We got off to an early four-point lead and then they just kicked us in the mouth and we didn't have an answer," said head coach Bubba Smith. "In games like this where teams get hot early you have to really dig deep and buckle down defensively and we didn't do that in the first half. I thought in the second half we defended better but offensively we just didn't have a rhythm and settled for some shots.

Ryan Montgomery led the Flames with nine first half points and four rebounds and finished with a team-high 18. Colton Blevins added 12 points and four rebounds while Michael McGuirk and Cody Jones each tallied seven.

"We took a long time in the locker room and the guys are confident that we are going to get this turned around," added Smith. "We take ownership of it and know that we need to get better each day in practice and get back to our principles on the defensive end to make sure we don't allow a team to come at us like they did in the first half."

For the game Lee shot just 36 percent (23 of 64) from the field while the Pioneers connected on 45.6 percent (26 of 57).  Tusculum held a 37-35 advantage on the glass. Both teams took care of the basketball as the Flames were guilty of just 10 floor mistakes while the visitors turned it over 11 times.

The loss sends the Flames to 1-4 on the young season while Tusculum improves to 2-3 under first-year head coach J.T. Burton.

Lee will take a few days off for Thanksgiving before getting back on the hard court next Monday against King University in Walker Arena. Tipoff is set for 7 p.m.