FLORENCE – The Lander women's basketball team won its Peach Belt Conference opener Wednesday night when the Lady Bearcats held off a late Francis Marion rally to defeat the Lady Patriots, 54-51, at the Smith University Center.

Lander improves to 3-2 overall and 1-0 in the PBC, while FMU drops to 2-3, 0-1.

Mukia Myrick led Lander with 12 points, six rebounds and four assists, while Janyce Ealey added 11 points. Kaylyn Small led Lander on the boards with eight.

The Lady Patriots were led by T.T Belcher's 12-point, 12-rebound double-double, while Emilee Dunton added 11 points.

Lander, which rallied late in the first half to force a 33-33 knot at halftime, connected on 19-of-53 field goals for 35.8 percent, including 5-of-18 from the three-point line for 28.6 percent. The Lady Bearcats made 11-of-20 free throws for 55 percent.

FMU made 20-of-59 floor shots for 33.9 percent, including 4-of-15 threes for 26.7 percent. FMU sank 7-of-11 foul shots for 63.6 percent.

Lander looked like it was ready to coast in for the win when Ealey netted a layup and a three pointer to give her team a 52-45 lead with 1:06 remaining in the game, but FMU's Belcher and Carmella Thompson both hit layups to trim the LU lead to 52-49 with 18 seconds.

Myrick followed with two foul shots to put Lander up 54-49.

The Lady Bearcats took an early 4-0 lead when Ciara Lyons took the opening tip in for a layup and Small followed with a pair of free throws. Lander stretched the margin to 10-2 at the 16:12 mark on a three-point field goal by Jasmine Judge, who was 3-for-7 from behind the arc.

FMU came back to cut the margin to 17-16 at 12:51 on a Danielle Gibson layup, then took its first lead at 19-18 on a Dunton three at 11:36. The Lady Patriots built a five-point lead, their biggest of the game, at 8:18 when Hattie Harris' fastbreak layup gave FMU a 26-21 advantage.

But Lander came right back to tie the game at 26-26 on another Judge three at 6:55.

FMU went up by five again at 33-28 with 3:24 left in the half, but the Lady Bearcats got a layups from Ealey and Brittni Johnson and a free throw from Keondra Barnes to tie the game at halftime.

The second half got off to a slow start as neither team netted a field goal until 16:06 when Lander's Lyons finally broke the silence to give LU a 36-33 advantage.

Neither team could make a second-half break until Lander went up 44-39 with 7:02 on a Lyons layup.