GREENWOOD – Jared Sherfield scored 19 points while Deandre Robinson made his first six 3-point shots as the Lander Bearcats cruised past Southern Wesleyan 104-78 Saturday afternoon in the second round of the Southeast Challenge at Horne Arena.
Lander hit its first eight shots from the floor and never looked back, improving to 2-0 on the season. The Bearcats beat Anderson University in the first round of the Southeast Challenge Friday.
The Warriors fell to 0-2, including Friday's loss to Flagler.
The Bearcats scored 100 points or more for the first time since March 7, 2020. Twelve Lander players scored.
Sherfield made seven of eight shots from the floor to lead the Bearcats. Robinson hit six of eight from behind the 3-point arc for 18 points.
Dominic Stanford made six of eight shots and finished with 15 points for Lander.
Tommy Moore paced the Bearcats with six assists while Jacob Cooper added four. Navaughn Maise had nine points, three steals and two blocked shots for the Blue and Gold.
Bryson Felder led Southern Wesleyan with 17 points while Wilvens Fleurizard and Bryson Felder added 11 apiece.
Lander shot 63 percent in the first half and finished the game 36-for-67 (54 percent) while out-rebounding the Warriors 41-26.
The Bearcats hit their first eight shots, starting with three consecutive 3-pointers by Robinson for a 10-3 lead. Stanford followed with a baseline jumper, Chandler Lindsey knocked down a trey from the top of the key, and Stanford swished a 3 from the left side for an 18-6 advantage with 15:41 left in the opening half.
Lindsey found Maise open under the basket for a layup and then Moore added a left-handed layup high off the glass for a 22-10 lead with 14:31 to go.
Stanford's 3-point attempt rimmed out with 13:44 left, the first miss for the Bearcats in the game.
Lander would also miss its next three shots as its lead shrank to 22-16. After Ajang Aguek and Sherfield each made two free throws, Cooper swished a runner in the lane to give the Bearcats their first field goal in over four minutes making it 28-18 with 10:16 to go.
Noah Dunn scored twice in a row and then found Sherfield open under the basket for a dunk, Cooper nailed a 3-pointer and Sherfield made another shot in the lane for a 39-22 Lander lead at the 6:54 mark.
The onslaught continued as Nigel Colvin and Sherfield made 3s, extending the advantage to 45-22 with 5:43 to go.
Robinson's fourth 3 upped Lander's advantage to 54-32 inside the two-minute mark. That would be the halftime score as the Bearcats were 19-for-30 from the floor (63 percent) in the first half while out-rebounding Southern Wesleyan 19-7.
Lander started the second half much like the first as Robinson made a 3, Maise collected a back-court steal and dunked, and Robinson hit another trey for a 67-36 advantage with 17:47 left.
Sherfield scored 10 consecutive Bearcat points including a 3-pointer and three-point play as the hosts increased their lead to 77-44 with 12:55 to go.
Aguek's two-handed dunk off a lob pass from Sherfield made it 81-44 inside the 12-minute mark.
Southern Wesleyan scored nine consecutive points including a pair of 3s by Long to pull within 85-60. But Stanford got hot, scoring twice on nearly identical alley-oop dunk passes from Cooper and then hitting a 3 to make it 92-61 with 5:45 left.
Aguek dunked off a pass from Sebastian Augustave, Cooper nailed a step-back 3 from the left corner and Connor McKay scored inside for his first collegiate points as Lander led 100-68 with three minutes to go.
Samuel Perry followed McKay with his first points as a college player when he made a put-back for a 104-74 advantage with just over one minute left.
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