GREENWOOD – The Lander Bearcats had five double-figure scorers and maintained their lead in the Peach Belt Conference's North Division with a dominating 86-68 victory over Francis Marion Wednesday night at Horne Arena.
Lander improved to 15-9 overall and 9-4 in the Peach Belt, keeping its division lead over USC Upstate. The Patriots fell to 7-16, 4-9. The Bearcats swept the season series, winning 78-56 on Jan. 2 in Florence.
Curtis Milner, making his fourth start of the season, paced Lander with 14 points and six blocked shots while adding seven rebounds. Milner made 6-of-8 shots from the floor.
Jason Davis also scored 14 points for the Bearcats while dishing out six assists. Michael Griffin and Dane Sparrow added 13 points apiece, and Zach Evans scored 11. Emanuel Hodrea added nine points and eight rebounds while Jarred Jackson scored eight points.
Dominic Bishop paced Francis Marion with 20 points while Raymond Dorsey added 16 points and nine rebounds.
The Bearcats built on a 12-point halftime advantage with the first five points of the second half to lead 44-27. Francis Marion got within 14 points three times before Lander blew the game open with a 9-0 run on a three-point play by Davis and 3-pointers by Sparrow and Evans, making it 59-36 with 13 minutes to go. It would be the Bearcats' largest lead of the game.
The Patriots scored five unanswered points to pull back within 18. But Sparrow hit three free throws and a 3-pointer, helping push Lander's lead back to 21 points, 65-44, with 9:21 left.
Francis Marion got within 15 points, 69-54, with 5:50 left on Rodrick Burton's put-back. But Evans hit a 3-pointer from the top of the key to push the lead back to 20, 80-60, with 3:30 to go. Davis hit a 3-pointer with two minutes left to push the lead to 86-65.
After falling behind 8-2, the Bearcats took the lead for good with 11 unanswered points on Griffin's three-point play, Sparrow's basket, and 3-pointers by Jackson and Griffin to make it 13-8.
Francis Marion pulled within 21-19 on Burton's basket with 8:43 left in the first half. But Lander responded with a 10-2 run, building the lead to 31-21 on Milner's basket with 4:29 to go. The Bearcats maintained the double-figure lead and were up 39-27 at the intermission.
Lander made 28 of 59 shots from the floor (48 percent), 11 of 25 from 3-point range (44 percent), and 19 of 21 free throws (91 percent). Francis Marion hit 25 of 69 shots from the field (36 percent), six of 16 from behind the arc (38 percent), and 12 of 15 free throws (80 percent).
The Bearcats out-rebounded Francis Marion 44-34.
