GREENWOOD – Dwight Tolbert erupted for 24 second-half points Saturday afternoon to lead the Lander men's basketball team from an eight-point halftime deficit to an 83-71 Peach Belt Conference victory over Francis Marion on Homecoming Saturday before a crowd of 2,250 fans in Horne Arena.
Lander improves to 13-7 overall and 6-6 in PBC, while FMU drops to 13-9, 7-6.
Tolbert, who led all scorers with 27 points, connected on 9-of-16 field goals, including 5-of-8 threes, and 4-of-10 free throws. He completed his double-double with a game-high 12 rebounds. David Pruett added 22 points for Lander and Darion Canty netted 12 points and nabbed nine boards. Point guard Corey Wright dished off 16 assists, only four shy of the Lander school record set by Bobby Shaw during the 1978-79 season.
The Patriots were paced by Zamarius McLendon and Darryn Frazier, who scored 18 and 17 points respectively. Liki Turner and Evrik Gary added 12 points each. McLendon also led FMU in rebounds with nine.
Down 40-32 at halftime, Lander opened the second half with an 11-2 run on a Jermel Kennedy three-point play, a two- and three-point basket by Tolbert, and a field goal and free throw by Dennis Rumph to take a 43-42 advantage. It was Lander first lead since the Bearcats were ahead 5-3 at 18:26 of the first half. The Bearcats stretched that margin to 52-46 with 14:45 left on a Pruett three.
The Bearcats notched their first double-digit lead at 61-51 on a Tolbert layup at 11:54.
FMU cut the lead to 63-57 at 8:36 on a McLendon fastbreak layup, but the Bearcats used a pair of Tolbert threes and a Pruett layup to increase their margin to 14 points, 71-57, with 7:06 left to play.
Lander maintained its double-figure lead for the remainder of the game and posted its biggest margin at 15 points – 83-68 – on an uncontested Pruett layup with three seconds remaining.
FMU's Frazier sank a three at the buzzer to end the game.
The Patriots used an 11-2 run to open the game and led 16-7 at the 16-minute mark.
Lander scored the game's next seven points which included a rarity, back-to-back dunks by the same player. Darius Carrier collected a steal which led to Wright's pass to Kennedy for a dunk at the 12-minute mark. After Francis Marion got the ensuing possession to mid-court, Kennedy stole the ball from McLendon and drove in for another dunk. That pulled the Bearcats within 16-14.
Frazier's three extended Francis Marion's lead to 22-14 at the midway point of the first half. After Pruett hit a three pointer to pull Lander within 22-20 with 8:20 left, the Patriots extended the lead to 30-22 on a jumper by Marcel Williams at the 6:30 mark.
The Bearcats started out 6-for-15 from the free-throw line before Carrier made the second of his two attempts to make it 30-23 with 5:15 to go. But Frazier converted a layup off a long pass from Gary to extend Francis Marion's lead to 32-23 at the 4:12 mark.
After Pruett's three and Canty's jumper pulled Lander within 32-28, Frazier hit back-to-back threes to give the Patriots their first double-digit lead at 38-28 with 1:31 left in the first half.
Lander, which outrebounded the Patriots, 48-35, connected on 28-of-65 field goals for 43.1 percent, including 9-of-25 threes for 36 percent. Lander also sank 18-of-31 free throws for 58.1 percent.
FMU was 26-of-61 from the floor for 42.6 percent, including 9-of-28 from the three-point line for 32.1 percent. The Patriots downed 10-of-16 foul shots for 62.5 percent.
