GREENWOOD – Ciara Lyons scored 17 of her 19 points in the second half and Mukia Myrick hit two crucial 3-pointers to break the game open as the Lander Lady Bearcats remained unbeaten in the Peach Belt Conference with an 82-64 victory over Georgia Southwestern Saturday afternoon at Horne Arena.

Lander improved to 4-0 in the Peach Belt and 9-3 overall. Georgia Southwestern fell to 1-2 and 9-3.

Lyons led the Lady Bearcats with 19 points, nine rebounds and five assists despite only two points at halftime. Lyons, who scored a career-high 35 points Wednesday night, made eight of 12 shots in the second half.

Jasmine Judge added 17 points and five assists for Lander, Myrick and Kaylyn Small scored 16 points apiece, and Brittni Johnson added 12 points. Small was 7-for-8 from the floor and added eight rebounds for the Lady Bearcats.

The Lady Hurricanes had two players with double-doubles and almost a third. Tania Walters had 12 points and 10 rebounds, Jessica Jones added 11 points and 11 rebounds, and Adrian Randall fell one rebound short with 12 points and nine boards. Terra Branch added 10 points for Georgia Southwestern while Walters led the team with five assists.

Lander made 31 of 73 shots from the floor (43 percent), 11 of 16 free throws (69 percent), and nine of 24 from 3-point range (38 percent).

Georgia Southwestern made 23 of 70 shots (33 percent), 17 of 20 free throws (85 percent), and one of eight from behind the arc (13 percent).

Georgia SW had a big rebounding edge, outboarding Lander 57-37. But the Lady Bearcats forced 26 turnovers while committing 16 turnovers.

The Hurricanes opened up a 10-5 lead in the first five minutes of the game, their largest lead of the day. Lander responded with nine unanswered points including a 3-pointer by Judge to take a 14-10 advantage at the 12:43 mark.

Walters hit a jumper that gave GSW its last lead of the game at 18-17 with 12:30 left. One minute later, Johnson hit a 3-pointer to give the Lady Bearcats the lead for good at 20-18 while starting a 13-2 run.

Small's basket in the paint increased Lander's lead to double figures at 30-20 with 4:32 to go. Lyons was scoreless until the final 30 seconds of the first half when her basket gave the Lady Bearcats a 36-28 halftime lead.

But Georgia Southwestern opened the second half with a 7-0 run, including a basket by Branch, a 3-pointer by Jessica Bivins, and a bucket by Jones to pull within 36-35 with 18:21 left.

But Lyons fueled an 8-0 run that pushed Lander's lead back to 44-35 with 16:24 left. She scored three of the four baskets during the run and assisted Myrick on the other.

The lead stayed between five and nine points for the next seven minutes until Small's three-point play gave the Lady Bearcats a 61-51 lead with 9:23 to go.

Walters hit a jumper to pull the Hurricanes within seven, 65-58, with 6:52 left. But Myrick hit 3-pointers on consecutive trips down the floor to increase Lander's lead to 13, effectively putting the game away.

Judge hit a 3-pointer with just under one minute to go, increasing the lead to 16, 80-64.

With 13 seconds left, an altercation occurred under the basket, some punches were thrown and two players from each team were ejected. Myrick and Judge were ejected on the Lander side, while Georgia Southwestern's Randall and Jones were also ejected. After the altercation was over, Johnson hit two technical free throws for Lander's final points of the game.