LAKELAND, Fla. – Behind a pair of 16-point outings from
Torrin Andrews and
Inady Legiste, the Lander men's basketball team utilized four double-digit scorers to earn a 77-64 win over Barry (6-6) to close out Florida Southern's Mocs Christmas Classic on Sunday evening.
The other two Bearcats to score 10 or more points were
Noah Dunn with 13 and
Dominic Stanford with 12 as Lander improved to 7-4. Those four players combined to shoot 21 for 36 (58.3%), and the team shot just over 50% for the game (29 for 57).
Legiste paired his 16 points with 10 rebounds for his first double-double of the 2024-25 campaign, and Andrews nearly had a double-double of his own with eight assists.
Jeremiah Holloway added five helpers to give him nine for the tournament.
The first half was a back-and-forth affair that featured three ties with neither team able to gain a sizable advantage over the first 18 minutes as the score was knotted up at 38.
Lander, though, found some breathing room in the form of a 9-2 run to close the half thanks to seven straight points from
Terry Leonard Jr. to take a 47-40 lead.
The Bearcats extended their lead to 11 early in the closing half after Andrews canned his second of four second-half 3-pointers to make it 56-45 with 16:56 to play.
A Dunn fastbreak trey pushed the Blue and Gold's advantage to a game-high 15 points with just over 11 minutes remaining, 66-51, and Lander maintained a double-digit margin the rest of the way to win in convincing fashion.
Lander had the upper hand in several statistical categories, including a 38-32 rebounding edge; a 30-26 advantage in points in the paint; and the bench outproduced the Bucs' 24-14.
The Bearcats will enjoy a nearly two-week break from game action before hitting the road for Americus, Georgia, for a Jan. 4 conference battle with Georgia Southwestern at 7:30 p.m. to ring in 2025.
