GREENWOOD – The Lander Bearcats made 8-of-8 free throws in the final 1:20, clinching their first victory of the season 61-57 over Erskine Tuesday night in non-conference action at Horne Arena.
Lander improved to 1-2 on the season while the Flying Fleet fell to 0-2.
Derek Brooks led the Bearcats with 11 points while Jarred Jackson and Michael Griffin added 10 points apiece.
Erskine's Craig Williams had game highs with 18 points and 10 rebounds. Reed Long added 11 points.
Brooks hit a 3-pointer to give the Bearcats their biggest lead of the game at 12 points, 45-33, with 8:42 left. Griffin became the first Lander player to reach double figures in points when he scored with 4:21 to go, making it 53-42.
But the Fleet answered with seven consecutive points to close within 53-49 on a basket by Williams with 1:22 left. Jahi Rawlings was immediately fouled and hit both free throws to up Lander's lead to 55-49, starting the string of eight consecutive free throws.
After Erskine's Lindokuhle Sibankulu scored with 24 seconds left to cut it to 55-51, Jackson hit two free throws to give the Bearcats a 57-51 lead. Long's 3-pointer closed it to 57-54 with 11.7 seconds left. Joe McEachern's free throws with 10 seconds to go made it 59-54. But Matt Odom's long 3-pointer cut Erskine's deficit to 59-57 with 3.5 seconds left. Brooks hit two free throws with 2.8 seconds left for the final margin.
The Bearcats closed the first half with an 8-2 run for a 29-21 lead at the intermission. J.T. Greene hit a jumper with 7:25 to go, giving the Bearcats an 18-17 lead and Lander stayed on top the rest of the game. The closest Erskine got was 31-30 early in the second half.
For the game, Lander made 20-of-61 shots from the floor (33 percent), 16-of-20 from the free-throw line (80 percent), and 5-of-26 from 3-point range (19 percent). The Fleet hit 19-of-43 shots from the floor (44 percent), 14-of-18 from the line (78 percent), and 5-of-18 from behind the arc (28 percent).
The teams had 35 rebounds apiece with Jackson leading Lander with 7. The Fleet had 18 turnovers to the Bearcats' 10.
