GREENWOOD – Lander's JR Washington led three players in double figures Monday afternoon as the Bearcats men's basketball team held off Young Harris College, 67-66, in a Peach Belt Conference game in Horne Arena.

Lander improves to 11-6 overall and 5-3 in the PBC, while YHC drops to 10-5, 4-4.

After taking the lead at 67-66 with 1:26 left to play on a pair of Jareal Smith free throws, the Lander defense forced four YHC missed field goal attempts.

Washington netted 18 points, while Dermaine Smith had 12 and Jareal Smith 11. Dermaine Smith led the team in rebounds with four.

Young Harris' Isaiah Johnson scored a game-high 23 points, while Steve Viterbo added 19, Herdie Lawrence 11 points and Kevin Altidor 10 points and six rebounds. Viterbo surpassed the 1,000-point milestone with his 16th point.

Lander connected on 27-of-50 field goals (54 percent), 4-of-16 threes (25 percent) and 9-of-16 free throws (56.3 percent)

The Mountain Lions, who won the rebounding battle, 28-25, were 24-of-52 from the field (46.2 percent), 12-of-29 from the three-point line (41.4 percent) and 6-of-10 from the foul line (60 percent).

Lander, which twice led by 10 points in the first half, had the advantage at halftime, 39-31.

Young Harris kicked off the second half with a 10-3 run to cut the Bearcat lead to 42-41 with 15:55 left in the game. After Lander went up 51-46 with 11:45 remaining on Washington layup, the Mountain Lions went on an 8-0 run to take a 54-51 advantage at the 8:41 mark.

A Washington layup gave Lander a 55-54 lead with 7:56 left the two teams battled through four ties and four lead changes the remainder of the contest.