AUGUSTA, Ga. – The Lander Bearcats led the No. 9 Augusta Jaguars for the first half but were unable to hold on as the Bearcats fell 81-78 on the road.
Jared Sherfield led the Bearcats with 21 points on an 8-of-14 shooting night. Dominic Stanford, Chandler Lindsey and Jacob Cooper joined Sherfield in double-figure scoring.
The Bearcats and Jaguars started the first half trading blows, with Lander able to stay ahead of the host squad due to an 11-5 start to the first half. Dominic Stanford put away four of those initial 11 points while Jared Sherfield had five.
Augusta would get the contest within five on a Tyshaun Crawford dunk to make it a 15-10 game before a Jacob Cooper layup would push the Bearcats in front by seven with 12:53.
Lander would stretch its lead to nine points off a layup from Navaugh Maise to give the Blue and Gold a 24-15 edge before Jaguars would come roaring back to get the game to 24-20 with 8:11 remaining in the first half. The Bearcats would respond with five straight points from Stanford out of a timeout to go up 29-20.
The Bearcats would claim its first double-figure lead over Augusta with a layup from Stanford to give Lander a 33-24 advantage with 4:28. The Blue and Gold would see its first-half advantage go to as many as 14 with Cooper hitting a pair of free throws with no time remaining to give Lander a 45-31 lead to conclude the first half of action.
Lander shot 16-of-25 from the field along with 4-of-7 from 3-point range and 9-of-12 from the free throw line in the first frame.
Augusta shot 11-of-20 from the field along with 2-of-6 from 3-point range and 7-of-7 from the free throw line in the first half.
Lander would be the first to strike in the second half with a Chandler Lindsey layup to push Lander in front 47-31 before an Augusta 3-pointer put the Jaguars on the board for the first time in the second half to make it a 13-point contest.
A Stanford 3-pointer with 18:16 put Lander back in front by 14 with the score 50-36 before Augusta would counter with a layup to bring the Bearcats lead back to 12.
The Bearcats would hold leads as large as 13 for the second half before the Jaguars finally got within striking distance of Lander after an 8-0 swing for Augusta made it a 65-61 contest with 8:42 in the second half.
Augusta would take the lead from Lander with 7:23 after a Miguel Arnold 3-pointer fell to push the Jaguars in front 66-65. Sherfield would sink a layup with 7:03 to give Lander the lead back with 7:03. Arnold would hit a 3-pointer with 5:58 to put Augusta in front 69-68 to give the Jaguars the lead back where it would stay.
The Bearcats got within one point of the Jaguars with under a minute after a Noah Dunn 3-pointer made it a 77-76 Augusta ball game with 46 seconds left.
Lander shot 28-for-49 from the field along with 7-of-18 from 3-point range and 15-of-21 from the free throw line for the game. Augusta shot 27-of-48 from the field while going 7-of-16 from 3-point range and 20-for-24 from the free throw line for the game.
Lander returns to the state of Georgia on Saturday when it travels to battle Clayton State on January 14 for a 3:30 pm start.
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