GREENWOOD – Shannon McKever posted a double-double as No. 21-ranked Lander had five double-figurer scorers in an 84-66 Peach Belt Conference victory over Georgia College & State University Monday night at Horne Arena.
McKever scored 17 points and had 14 rebounds to lead the Lady Bearcats, who improved to 10-1 overall and 3-0 in the Peach Belt.
Chimere Jordan led the Lady Bobcats (7-4, 0-1) with 17 points.
Jasmine Judge added 12 points for Lander, Nardia Robbins scored 11 points, and Tasheba Butler and Mukia Myrick added 10 points apiece.
Ciara Lyons led the Lady Bearcats with nine assists, while Butler and Myrick had seven rebounds apiece.
McKever, who made eight of 15 shots from the floor, also contributed four steals and three blocked shots. McKever’s backup in the post, Kaylyn Small, nearly had a double-double herself with eight points and eight boards.
Antoinette Reames and Jessica Baker added 11 points apiece for Georgia College. Reames and Candice Clark led the Lady Bobcats with seven rebounds apiece. Jordan made seven of 10 shots from the floor and scored 14 of her 17 points in the second half.
Leading 8-6, the Lady Bearcats went on a 12-0 run to take control of the first half. Robbins scored seven of the 12 points, starting the streak with a jumper. Myrick followed with a steal and layup, Robbins hit another jumper and nailed a 3-pointer, and Judge also hit a 3 to complete the run, making it 20-6 at the 10:16 mark.
Georgia College crawled within seven points, 24-17, with eight minutes left on Dominique Huffin’s three-point play. Lander built the lead back up to 13, at 30-17 and 32-19, on baskets by Lyons off a long pass from Butler, and a jumper by Butler.
The Lady Bearcats maintained their double-figure lead, 39-29, into halftime behind McKever’s 10 points, seven rebounds, three steals and a blocked shot.
McKever scored twice more inside and Judge hit a pair of 3-pointers to help Lander extend its lead to 16, 49-33, with 16 minutes to go. Reames converted a three-point play and scored on a put-back to pull the Bobcats within 53-40. That would be as close as the game would get.
Myrick hit a 3-pointer from the left corner while being knocked to the floor and converted a rare four-point play, Keondra Barnes followed with a layup, and Myrick hit a 3-pointer to push Lander’s lead to its largest of the game, 62-40, with 11:11 left.
The inside-outside game was working well all evening and another example was when Brittni Johnson hit a 3-pointer from the corner off McKever’s pass from the post, making it 74-52 with six minutes remaining. Lander’s largest lead of the game was 24 points.
Jordan scored two baskets to pull Georgia College within 75-58 with 3:20 left. But Small scored three inside baskets to help Lander close out the victory.
For the game, the Lady Bearcats made 33 of 83 shots from the floor (40 percent), 10 of 16 free throws (63 percent), and eight of 23 from 3-point range (35 percent).
Georgia College made 26 of 69 shots (38 percent), nine of 12 free throws (75 percent), and five of 16 from behind the arc (31 percent).
Lander had a 56-45 edge on the boards while forcing 20 turnovers. The Lady Bearcats committed 15 turnovers.
