COCHRAN, Ga. – Riding the wave of its first outright regular-season conference championship in program history, the Lander men's basketball team kept the momentum going with an 80-70 win at Middle Georgia on Saturday afternoon.
It was the seventh straight win for the Bearcats, who finished the regular season at 22-5, 17-3 in the Peach Belt Conference. Those 17 conference wins and .850 win percentage in league play are the best marks in program history in a year for the record books for these Bearcats.
With Saturday evening's games complete, it is official that top-seeded Lander will host eight-seed USCA in the quarterfinals of the PBC Tournament this Wednesday, March 4 with game-time yet to be determined.
Freshman of the Year hopeful
Jacob Daniels put the final stamp on his candidacy with a career-best 22-point afternoon and a near-triple-double against the Knights (8-19, 4-16).
He knocked down 8 of 14 shots, added nine assists and collected eight rebounds.
Bobby Crawford Jr. tacked on 11 points, four rebounds and four blocks, and
Navaughn Maise and
Antewan Webber Jr. scored 10. Webber was keen to find the ball off the glass as he had a season-high 12 rebounds and his first double-double of the season.
It was far from easy for LU this afternoon, who trailed by as many as nine points during the first half.
Down 31-22 with 7:25 to go, the Blue and Gold got the wheels in motion during a 14-3 run to close the half up a pair.
The Bearcats outscored the Knights 13-4 over the first four minutes of the second half to extend their lead to 49-38.
Daniels was instrumental in the run as he collected nine of those points.
Dylan Canoville made a pair of free throws with 14:21 to play to give Lander its largest lead, 55-41, but Middle Georgia struck suddenly with 12 unanswered points, and it was a two-point game with less than 10 minutes left.
Perhaps unsurprisingly in this "game of runs," the Bearcats came back on a 14-4 stretch for a 69-57 lead with 5:25 to go – and didn't let the Knights back in it again.
Lander was 27 of 60 from the field (45%) and kept Middle Georgia below 40% (25 of 63). LU doubled up MGA 40-20 in the paint and outrebounded them by a wide 41-28 margin.
Stay tuned to
landerbearcats.com for more information on the PBC Tournament tomorrow.
