AIKEN, S.C. – Lander men's basketball clinched at least a share of the Peach Belt Conference Regular Season Championship on Saturday afternoon with its 77-68 defeat of USCA on the Pacers' home court.
It marks the first time since the 1998-99 season that the Bearcats have been able to lay claim to such a title – and they can win the conference outright with wins in either of their final two games as Columbus State is currently two games behind.
Today's win gives Lander a 20-5 overall record and a 15-3 mark in the PBC. Those 15 conference wins are now the new single-season Lander record, breaking a tie with the 2019-20 Bearcats who had 14.
LU's 48-point second-half outburst was what catapulted them to victory after the Pacers (11-15, 6-12 PBC) were ahead 30-29 at halftime.
Greyson Pritzl poured in 18 points on 6-of-11 shooting with four treys to go along with six rebounds.
Jacob Daniels also shot 6 of 11 and finished with 14 points and six assists.
Navaughn Maise (13 points) and
Bobby Crawford Jr. (10) were part of the double-figures club while
Antewan Webber Jr. skied for nine rebounds to lead the team.
USCA was ahead 17-11 seven minutes into the afternoon but Webber and Crawford combined on a 7-2 run to make it a one-point Pacer lead with 8:49 left.
Pritzl sniped a 3 on the break and Leonard added another jumper to push the Bearcats ahead 23-19.
LU came out with noticeable intensity to open the second half, getting a few blocks and steals that spurned a 9-0 run punctuated by a ferocious one-handed putback slam by Maise.
Pritzl's 3-pointer with 16 minutes to go put the Blue and Gold up 10, 43-33, but the Pacers had other plans and authored a 12-2 run of their own to knot it at 45 with 12 minutes left.
Canoville's dunk with 8:30 remaining gave LU a slight 54-47 cushion, though again, USCA wouldn't go away and made it a 55-53 game two minutes later.
It was still a two-point affair as the clock wound down to three minutes, 63-61, before back-to-back treys from Pritzl and Maise put a dagger in USCA's heart.
Lander knocked down six free throws to put a bow on it at the end.
The Bearcats shot 30 of 64 (46.9%) with 18 of those makes coming in the second 20 minutes. They won the rebounding battle 44-41 and scored 46 points in the paint.
USCA – by virtue of LU's defensive energy – was abysmal from the field: they finished 20 of 66 (30.3%) and missed 18 of 25 3-point attempts. Lander tied its season-high of 10 blocked shots – four apiece at the hands of Crawford and Canoville.
LU is back home on Wednesday, Feb. 25 to face Georgia College in
Finis Horne Arena at 7:30 p.m. They topped the Bobcats 93-81 in Milledgeville last month.
