GREENWOOD –
Dominic Stanford scored 18 of his 20 points in the second half, leading the Lander Bearcats to their first win of the 2024-25 season 71-54 over Tusculum Friday evening at Horne Arena.
Lander improved to 1-2 while the Pioneers fell to 0-4.
The Bearcats dropped their first two games of the season when they lost a 16-point lead with just three minutes to go against Catawba and then were victimized by UNC Pembroke's school-record 19 made 3-pointers last Sunday.
But Friday's game was never in doubt as Lander outscored Tusculum 19-3 in a run that spanned the two halves.
Stanford led the Bearcats with 20 points and five steals, three of the thefts leading to his own points in the second half.
Noah Dunn added 11 points while pacing Lander with seven rebounds.
Caleb Williams led the Bearcats with four assists.
Taj Kimber paced the visitors with 17 points while Bryce Jackson added a double-double with 10 points and 11 boards.
The Bearcats out-shot Tusculum throughout the game, finishing 28 of 61 from the floor (46 percent) to 19 of 60 (32 percent) for the Pioneers.
Lander built a 17-9 lead over the first nine minutes as
Jeremiah Holloway led the way with a 3-pointer and a put-back layup. Williams also scored twice and Stanford spun around a defender for a dunk, his only points of the first half.
The Bearcats had a three-minute scoring drought and saw their lead shrink to 17-14. But they pushed their advantage to double digits for the first time on Dunn's 3-pointer which made it 24-14 with 6:34 left in the half.
Malachi Hale's layup pulled Tusculum within 24-20 with 4:12 to go. But the Blue and Gold responded with a game-changing 11-0 run.
Dunn started Lander's run with a one-on-one spin move in the lane where he made a fall-away jumper,
Tim Steele swished a 3-pointer from the top of the key, Holloway converted a driving layup, Steele made a layup off a long pass from Williams, and
Greyson Pritzl drove in from the top of the key for a layup making it 35-20 with 1:08 to go.
The Bearcats led 35-23 at halftime.
Stanford almost single-handedly pushed Lander's advantage to 20 early in the second half. The senior guard outjumped three players for a rebound and finished with a layup, swished a 3-pointer from the left corner, and then turned his second steal of the half into a windmill dunk making it 43-23 with 16:21 left.
Stanford added another highlight when he rebounded Steele's left corner 3-point miss and dunked emphatically, giving the Bearcats a 47-27 lead at the 12:55 mark.
The Pioneers made things interesting when Kimber made a long 3-pointer, cutting their deficit to 49-35 with 9:58 to go.
Tusculum pulled within 51-41 on Jackson's free throws just inside the eight-minute mark.
But the Blue and Gold used a 7-0 run to push its lead to 58-41.
Torrin Andrews made a 3-pointer from the right corner, Stanford converted another steal into a basket resulting in a three-point play, and he added another free throw during the team's next possession.
Pritzl's trey with 3:32 left gave Lander a 65-46 lead. Holloway took a long inbounds pass from Andrews and flushed a two-handed dunk, giving the Bearcats a 69-51 advantage with 1:32 left.
