AMERICUS, Ga. – The Lander men's basketball team made the trek to Georgia Southwestern for a midweek Peach Belt Conference battle with the Hurricanes on Wednesday night and fell 71-68 in a back-and-forth game inside the Storm Dome.
The Bearcats moved to 9-4 overall and 4-2 in the PBC while GSW improved to 11-3, 4-2.
Neither side gained more than a seven-point lead in a game that featured eight lead changes and was within a possession or two throughout.
Terry Leonard Jr. and
Bobby Crawford Jr. each had 14 points to lead LU as the only double-digit scorers. Leonard added four assists.
Jacob Daniels,
Tommy Moore and
Dylan Canoville all had eight points, and
Navaughn Maise tacked on seven points and seven rebounds.
The Bearcats used a 7-1 run in the first half to grab their largest lead of the game, 25-18, with 6:40 left. GSW closed by scoring 19 of the game's next 27 points to take a 37-33 advantage into the locker room.
The Hurricanes increased that margin to 44-38 before Moore nailed a triple to make it 44-43 with 14 minutes to play.
Canoville later rocked the rim to make it 52-51 Hurricanes, but Lander was unable to tie or take the lead until 7:40 remained in the game when Leonard made layups on back-to-back possessions to knot it at 59.
Crawford followed with a pair of slams on successive possessions to give the Bearcats their first lead of the second half, 63-62, a minute later. Daniels then made two at the stripe to increase the lead to 65-62 with 5:46 to go.
GSW hit a 3-pointer to tie on its next trip down the floor and ultimately grabbed a lead it wouldn't again relinquish.
The Blue and Gold cut it to 69-68 and had a chance to tie on the final possession after a Hurricanes make pushed their lead to three, but Daniels' 3-ball bounced off the front of the rim as time expired.
The Bearcats finished with 42 points in the paint and received 23 points from the bench.
LU is back home at
Finis Horne Arena this Saturday (Jan. 10) to face Augusta. Tip-off is scheduled for 3:30 p.m.
