CENTRAL, S.C. – After trailing at halftime, the Lander men's basketball team dropped 50 points in the second half on the road against Southern Wesleyan to secure an 88-78 victory Monday afternoon.
Lander moves to 8-2 overall while Southern Wesleyan drops to 2-10 overall. Lander is now 2-0 against Southern Wesleyan after defeating the Warriors 104-78 at Horne Arena earlier in the season.
Noah Dunn led the Bearcats in scoring with 21 points. Dunn was one of five Bearcats to score in double-figures. Chandler Lindsey, Jacob Cooper, Jaylon Pugh and Jared Sherfield joined Dunn with 10 or more points scored against the Warriors.
The Bearcats began the first half up 4-0 after Ajang Aguek hit one free throw and Pugh sank a 3-pointer with 17:29 remaining.
Southern Wesleyan would go on a 6-0 run to temporarily take a two-point edge before Dunn made a layup to tie the game 6-6.
After the game was tied once more at 10-10, the Warriors used a 10-3 spurt to go up 20-13 over the Bearcats before a 3-pointer from Dunn cut into the Warriors' point streak.
Lander would begin to chip away at the Warrior lead with back-to-back jumpers from Pugh getting the Blue and Gold within three of the Warriors with 8:30 left in the first half.
The Bearcats got the contest within one point after Lindsey drilled a 3-point shot with 4:28 left to make it a 29-28 Warrior lead. Lander would fall behind 37-31 with 1:40 left before going on a 7-2 run to end the half, which saw five points coming from Dunn and two from Lindsey, to put Lander behind 39-38 heading to the half.
Lander shot 15-of-28 from the field in the first half along with a 6-of-15 performance from 3-point range and 2-of-4 from the free throw line. Southern Wesleyan went 13-of-25 from the field while going 4-of-9 from 3-point range and 9-of-10 from the free throw line.
Coming out of the half the two sides would exchange buckets to keep the contest in favor of the Warriors.
After a back-and-forth beginning to the second half, the Bearcat began to gain traction after a layup from Pugh and a 3-pointer from Cooper put Lander in front 58-54 with 11:18 left in the second half.
The Bearcats would stretch their lead to seven after Dunn hit a 3-pointer before the Warriors would tie the game 69-69 with 5:19 left.
Cooper would help Lander retake the lead with a pair of free throws and a layup with 3:49 left in regulation.
The Warriors would get within two points of Lander after a pair of free throws would make it a 73-71 ballgame with 3:41 remaining, but the Bearcats would outpace Southern Wesleyan 15-8 the rest of the way after going 4-of-5 from the field and 7-of-8 from the free throw line to secure the 88-78 victory.
Lander shot 32-for-55 from the field for the game while going 9-of-24 from 3-point range and 15-of-21 from the free-throw line. Southern Wesleyan went 26-of-54 from the field for the game while going 11-of-18 from 3-point range and 15-of-18 from the free-throw line.
Lander will enjoy the winter break before regrouping to travel to Carson-Newman on December 31 for a 2 pm game.
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