GREENWOOD – The No. 13-ranked Lander Bearcats suffered their first home loss of the season Wednesday night, dropping a hard-fought battle to Peach Belt Conference rival Flagler 84-80 Wednesday night at Horne Arena.
Lander fell to 15-4 overall and 7-2 in the Peach Belt. The Bearcats are now 10-1 at home.
With the loss, Lander fell one game behind North Georgia for the conference lead.
The Saints earned their sixth consecutive win, improving to 13-6 overall and 6-3 in the PBC.
Torrin Andrews paced the Bearcats with 16 points, making three of five shots from behind the 3-point arc.
Jacob Cooper scored 15 points for Lander while leading the team with five assists. Inady Legiste added 13 points and three blocked shots for the Bearcats.
Tommy Moore scored 11 points for Lander while Noah Dunn paced the team with seven rebounds.
Tyler Collier was 6-for-6 from the floor and was the game's top scorer with 18 points for Flagler. Malik Bryant scored 16 points, Jax Bouknight 15 and Destin Clark 11. Jalen Barr grabbed 14 boards for the Saints.
Lander made only four of its first 19 shots from the floor and trailed 25-11 with nine minutes left in the opening half. Bouknight made three 3-pointers and Omar Figueroa added two during Flagler's hot start.
The Saints doubled up on the Blue and Gold, leading 30-15 with 7:34 left on Collier's 3-pointer.
The Bearcats finally began cutting into their deficit. Andrews made a 3-pointer and Nigel Colvin scored twice as Lander pulled within 37-26 at the 5:10 mark.
Down 39-26 with four minutes left, the Bearcats went on a tear with 14 unanswered points to take a 40-39 lead.
Andrews scored the first five points of the run. Andrews scored in the paint and then Connor McKay drove hard to the basket and flipped a pass to Andrews in the right corner for a 3-pointer.
Phillip Burwell lobbed an inbounds pass to McKay for a layup, Andrews swished a trey from the left wing, McKay made a layup off a nifty pass from Andrews, and Moore put Lander on top with 1:21 left on a driving floater.
The Bearcats led 41-40 at the break, having outscored Flagler 26-10 over the final seven minutes of the first half. Lander made 13 of its last 14 shots in the opening half.
Moore made a driving layup giving the Bearcats a 45-42 lead in the first minute of the second half. After the Saints moved back in front, Cooper's 3-pointer from the right corner tied it at 50-apiece with 15:43 to go.
Ajang Aguek's 3-pointer off an impressive pass from Cooper pulled Lander within 56-55. Burwell drove the length of the floor and made a floater to tie the game at 61-all with 11:53 left.
Collier made his third and fourth treys of the game as Flagler built a 67-60 lead with 8:27 to go.
Cooper made two free throws to pull the Bearcats within 72-68 and two more which cut the deficit to 74-70 with 5:22 left.
Legiste hit a 3-pointer from the right wing as Lander was within 74-73 with 4:12 to go.
Clark's two free throws pushed the Saints lead to 78-73 with 2:16 left. But Cooper ended Lander's 1-for-10 shooting slump with a three-point play which cut the deficit to 78-76 with 2:04 to go.
Legiste missed a potential go-ahead 3-pointer and Bouknight answered with a floater giving Flagler an 80-76 advantage with 1:07 left.
Cooper made one of two free throws as the Bearcats drew within 80-77 with 54 seconds to go.
With the shot clock winding down, Bouknight missed a fade-away jumper and Lander won the battle for the loose rebound with 20 seconds left.
Cooper missed a potential game-tying 3-pointer, then Bryant made two free throws for an 82-77 Flagler lead with five seconds to go.
Burwell made an off-balance trey with 1.7 seconds left as Lander was within 82-80. The Saints called timeout to avoid a possible five-second violation before Bouknight put the game away with two free throws.
