GREENWOOD – The 25th-ranked Lander Bearcats made 14 of their final 15 shots from the floor, pulling away from USCA 91-81 in a Peach Belt Conference Tournament quarterfinal game that featured 22 lead changes Wednesday night at Horne Arena. Top-seeded Lander advanced thanks to huge double-double games from
Jacob Daniels and
Navaughn Maise.
The Bearcats improved to 23-5 and advanced to the PBC Tournament semifinals to be played Saturday afternoon at 1 p.m. versus Flagler at Horne Arena. The finals will be Sunday, also at Horne. Flagler beat USC Beaufort in another quarterfinal game Wednesday.
The pesky Pacers ended their season at 13-16.
Peach Belt Freshman of the Year Daniels led Lander with 23 points and 10 assists while also grabbing six rebounds and three steals.
Daniels led a late charge, scoring eight points and dishing out three assists during a game-changing 14-2 run that led the Bearcats from a narrow deficit to a double-digit lead in front of a raucous crowd.
Maise added 20 points for Lander while pacing the team with 10 rebounds.
Greyson Pritzl added 11 points for the Bearcats, hitting three 3-pointers during a back-and-forth first half.
Freshman TJ Jackson had a huge game for USCA, pouring in a game-high 27 points. Caleb Byrd had a big first half for the Pacers and finished with 20 points. Mccaskill Rivers and Jonah Lawrence added 15 and 14 points respectively.
"That was different. They were unbelievable," Lander head coach
Omar Wattad said of the fans which included the Bearcats baseball, men's lacrosse and wrestling teams. "I really, really appreciate them. That got us going."
"We took a heck of a shot from Aiken," Wattad said. "They have some really tough players. They lost a lot of close games this year and they game in guns blazing, locked in, not wanting their season to end."
Wattad added, "I'm proud of the guys. We were much better in the second half. He (Daniels) and Maise put us on our backs. Tommy (Moore) came in and was huge when we were struggling offensively. In the second half, we guarded so much better. They (Aiken) shot the lights out in the first half. They got every loose ball. In the second half, we were much more engaged on the ball (defensively) and did a lot better job contesting (shots)."
The first half was action-packed with 10 ties and six lead changes. The largest lead of the opening half came at the 10:43 mark when Jackson's 3-pointer gave USCA a 25-20 advantage.
Dylan Canoville's layup with four minutes left gave Lander a 41-40 lead, its first advantage since it was 13-12.
Pritzl's step-back 3-pointer from the left side gave the Bearcats a 47-44 lead with 22 seconds to go. But, fittingly, USCA would send the game into halftime tied at 47-all on three Jackson free throws.
Maise had a big first half for Lander with 14 points. But the Bearcats were only 11 for 20 from the free-throw line in the opening half.
A fast-break lay-in by Daniels gave Lander its first lead of the second half at 51-50 with 17:47 left. The Pacers went back ahead 54-51 on baskets in the paint by Lawrence and Byrd.
The Bearcats began heating up, getting a dunk from Canoville, a fast-break layup and 3-pointer by Moore, and a driving layup and a nice assist from
Antewan Webber Jr. as the home team went back on top 62-61 with 12:22 to go.
After USCA went back on top for the game's 16th lead change, Daniels made a layup and Moore hit a 3-pointer from the right corner as Lander matched its largest lead of the game at 67-63.
Another Jackson 3-pointer gave the Pacers a 73-72 lead with 8:28 to go. After Daniels put LU back on top, Jackson made two technical free throws and the visitors were up 76-75 with six-plus minutes to go.
Bobby Crawford Jr.'s dunk off a pass from Daniels was the game's 22nd lead change, putting the Blue and Gold back on top 79-78 with 5:15 left. The Bearcats would not trail again.
Daniels drove the baseline and dropped one high off the glass, giving Lander its largest lead of the game at six points, 84-78, at the four-minute mark. The lead continued to grow from there.
Daniels added two free throws and got another assist to Maise as the Bearcats took a double-digit lead at 88-78 with 1:46 to go. They also kept USCA from scoring for more than four minutes to put the game away.
