MILLEDGEVILLE, Ga. - The Lander men's basketball team fell victim to a Georgia College rally Saturday afternoon as the Bobcats defeated the Bearcats 58-55 in a Peach Belt Conference game at the Centennial Center.
GCSU improves to 5-2 overall and 1-0 in the PBC, while Lander moves to 3-4, 0-3.
Tovi Bailey and Darion Canty netted 13 and 10 points respectively to lead the Bearcats, while Calvin Liptrot and Jermel Kennedy grabbed five rebounds each.
Reece Wiedeman led the Bobcats with a game-high 19 points and 11 rebounds, while Nate Hamilton added 12 points. Ryan Aquino grabbed a game-high 12 rebounds for GCSU.
Lander used the three-point shot to keep pace with GCSU in the early going as David Pruett hit two and Bailey one to give LU a 9-8 lead with 15:50 left in the first half.
After GCSU forced a 13-13 tie at 12:34 on Hamilton's three pointer, Lander scored eight unanswered points to go up 21-13 on a Canty jumper.
The Bearcats got its first double-figure lead with 3:23 left when Bailey's layup put LU up 25-15. GCSU came right back with a Wiedeman three-point play cut the lead to 25-18.
Quentin Bastian's layup gave Lander a 27-18 lead with 1:19 left, then GCSU ended the half with baskets by Wiedemann and Jared Holmes to make it 27-22.
GCSU rallied early in the second half to tie the score 27-27 on Aquino's free throw at 18:34, but Lander bounced right back with two Liptrot baskets for a 31-27 lead at 17:24.
Aquino tied the game again 33-33 on a layup with 15:20 remaining.
The Bearcats eased back out to 37-33 with 14:19 left on goals by Bailey and Marcus Broughton, but the Bobcats then went on a 7-0 run to take a 40-37 lead with 12:30 left to play culminated by Augustine's layup.
Lander regained the lead at 45-44 on Liptrot's jumper with 7:44 remaining.
Wiedeman's dunk with 4:30 left lifted GCSU to a 51-49 lead and the Bobcats followed that with two Josh Hurst free throws to make it 53-49 at the 3:45 mark.
Lander cut the margin to 57-53 on Broughton's layup with 52 seconds left and GCSU was able to hold Lander the remainder of the game.
LU connected on 24-of-60 field goals for 40 percent, including 3-of-11 threes for 27.3 percent. The Bearcats made 4-of-4 free throws for 100 percent.
GCSU was 22-of-56 from the field for 39.3 percent, including 3-of-20 threes for 15 percent. The Bobcats made 11-15 foul shots for 73.3 percent.
