SAVANNAH, Ga. -- The Lander men's basketball team battled back from a 15-point, second-half deficit Wednesday night to tie the game with four minutes remaining, but fell victim to an 11-2 Armstrong Atlantic rally in the final minutes as the Pirates claimed the Peach Belt Conference contest, 71-62, in Alumni Arena.
Armstrong Atlantic improves to 10-5 overall and 4-3 in the PBC, while Lander moves to 7-8, 1-7.
Lander's Jermel Kennedy posted a double-double with 16 points and 10 rebounds, while David Pruett added 16 points with five rebounds and four assists.
Jesse Wheeler scored a game-high 17 points to lead four AASU players in double figures. Chris Edwards added 13 points, Chris Vanlandingham 12 and Grant Domsic 10. Brett Goodwell led the Pirates in rebounds with nine.
Trailing 53-38 with 13:14 left in the game, the Bearcats went on a 22-7 run to tie the score at 60-60 on a Calvin Liptrot jumper with 4:00 left. The run started with a pair of free throws by both Kennedy and Liptrot, followed by a Pruett jumper.
Another Kennedy jumper cut the AASU advantage to single digits at 58-49 with 7:45 left. Kennedy scored Lander's next six points on two free throws, a field goal and a dunk to trim the margin to 60-57 with 5:19 left.
Quentin Bastian's dunk at 4:20 made it 60-59, then the Bearcats knotted the game at 60-all.
But AASU rallied in the final minutes to secure the win.
After both teams battled to a 6-6 tie in the opening minutes -- Lander got two baskets from Tovi Bailey and another from Darius Carrier -- the Pirates eased out to a 15-7 lead with 13:40 remaining in the half. Armstrong posted its first double-digit advantage at 21-10 with 11:18 and extended the lead to 13 points by halftime.
Lander, which trailed 40-27 at halftime, made 21-of-50 floor shots for 42 percent, including 1-of-5 three pointers for 20 percent. The Bearcats connected on 19-of-27 free throws for 70.4 percent.
Armstrong Atlantic sank 27-of-55 floor shots for 49.1 percent, including 6-of-17 threes for 35.3 percent. The Pirates also made 11-of-15 foul shots for 73.3 percent.
The Bearcats outrebounded AASU, 33-32.
