Box Score MILLEDGEVILLE, Ga. – Tobiasz Hose and Ricardo Martin both posted double-doubles Wednesday night to lead the Lander men's basketball team to an 83-65 Peach Belt Conference victory over Georgia College in the Bearcats regular-season finale at the Centennial Center.
Lander, which travels to Columbus State Sunday for a first-round Peach Belt Conference Tournament game, improves to 19-8 overall and 11-8 in the PBC. Georgia College ends the season at 9-19, 3-16.
The Bearcats are the No. 3 seed in the East Division, while Columbus State is No. 2 in the West. Game time is 4:30 p.m. The Lander/Columbus State winner will face the USC Aiken (E4)/Montevallo (W1) winner at 6 p.m., Saturday, March 7, in the semifinals at a yet to be determined site.
Hose netted a game-high 29 points and grabbed 12 rebounds, while Martin had 16 points and a game-high 15 rebounds for the Bearcats. JR Washington barely missed a double-double with 18 points and nine rebounds.
The Bobcats placed four players in double figures led by Dwight Anderson's 16 points and five rebounds. Ryan Blumenthal added 13 points and six rebounds, Alex Reid 12 points, and Terrell Harris 11 points.
The Bearcats, who led at halftime, 39-36, connected on 26-of-65 field goals (38.5 percent), including 8-of-18 threes (44.4 percent), while making 25-of-33 free throws (75.8 percent).
Georgia College was 23-of-60 from the floor (38.3 percent), including 12-of-30 three pointers (40 percent), and 7-of-10 foul shots (70 percent).
Lander outrebounded the Bobcats, 51-31.
GC led almost the entire first half until Kiair Crouch put the Bearcats up 35-34 with a layup with 1:49 remaining. The Bobcats regained the lead on a pair of Anderson free throws, but Martin closed out the half with a layup and a Lander lead.
The first nine minutes of the second half saw the teams continuously trading the lead until Washington put Lander up for good at 54-52 with a pair of free throws with 11:15 left to play.
The Bearcats used a 13-1 run to post its first double-figure lead at 65-53 when Hose fired in a three pointer with 7:12 left to play. From there, the Bearcats extended their margin to a game-high 21-point lead after Martin connected on a pair of free throws to make it 76-55 at 5:21.