GREENWOOD – For the first time in school history, the Lander Bearcats are both Peach Belt Conference regular season and tournament champions.
Top seed and nationally 25th ranked Lander came out hot and then survived a North Georgia rally, winning the PBC Tournament Championship game 64-54 Sunday afternoon at Horne Arena, the 10th consecutive victory for the Bearcats.
The Blue and Gold has won 16 of its last 17 games.
Lander improved to 25-5 and will next play in the NCAA Division II National Tournament, beginning later this week. The schedule will be released Sunday night.
It was LU's sixth PBC Tournament championship, its first since 2019-20. The Bearcats hoisted the PBC Championship trophy and cut down the nets in front of the home Horne Arena crowd.
North Georgia's 11-game winning streak ended as the Nighthawks fell to 23-7. They will also advance to March Madness.
The Bearcats hit 15 of their first 22 shots from the floor and had leads of 23 points late in the first half and 21 in the second half. North Georgia used a 21-4 run to pull within four points inside four minutes to go. But Lander pulled away late with a game-ending 7-1 run.
Peach Belt Tournament Most Valuable Player
Jacob Daniels and All-Tournament player
Bobby Crawford Jr. again led the way for the Bearcats as they did in Saturday's semifinals.
Crawford had 14 points on six of 10 shooting from the floor, six blocked shots and seven rebounds Sunday.
Daniels also scored 14 points while adding five assists and three steals.
Greyson Pritzl, who also made the All-Tournament team, added 10 points, seven rebounds and a team-high six assists for Lander.
Navaughn Maise paced the Bearcats with 11 rebounds while adding two blocked shots.
North Georgia's AJ White, the conference's leading scorer who came into today averaging 20.5 points per game, was held to two points.
"It was special," Lander head coach
Omar Wattad said. "It is a special, special feeling. I work these guys really hard and it is a testament to them as human beings that they can take it. If it's not up to the standard where I think we need to be at, I lay into them and they have never not responded.
"The players hold each other accountable," added Wattad, the PBC Coach of the Year. "It's a player led team, we have really good basketball players, and an amazing coaching staff with me. We are not done yet."
"It's a blessing to be in this position," Daniels said. "In our heads, we needed to come out with great energy, positive vibes and get off to a great start."
The Bearcats came out much hotter Sunday than they did in the first two tournament games, taking a 9-0 lead.
Tommy Moore drove the baseline and made a spin move for a layup to open the scoring, Crawford scored twice in the paint, and Daniels swished a 3-pointer.
Daniels made a driving layup to increase Lander's lead to 15-5 with 14:37 left in the opening half and Moore's 3-pointer from the left corner made it 18-8. Daniels put back his own miss as the Bearcats doubled up North Georgia 20-10 at the 12:17 mark.
Dylan Canoville dunked off a pass from Daniels, tapped in an offensive rebound, and then converted a tough layup into a three-point play as the Blue and Gold led 31-14 with 8:19 to go.
Lander's lead exploded past 20 points when Pritzl spun around a defender for a driving layup, making it 37-16 with 3:55 left. Pritzl scored again as the Bearcats had their largest lead of the game at 23 points, 39-16.
The Bearcats led 41-24 at halftime behind a superior shooting performance, making 19 of 34 shots (56 percent) to just seven of 28 (25 percent) for the Nighthawks. Lander outscored UNG 34-4 in the paint in the opening half and blocked five shots.
Colin Turner's layup off a Bearcat turnovers pulled the visitors within 43-30 at the 18-minute mark.
Daniels drove for a layup and assisted on baskets by Canoville and Pritzl as the Lander advantage grew to 53-32 inside 14 minutes to go.
But the Nighthawks scored the game's next eight points, holding the Bearcats scoreless for almost four minutes. Stephen Akwiwu's free throw cut the deficit to 53-40 at the 10-minute mark.
Crawford's layup ended the Lander scoring drought. But UNG resumed its comeback, stretching the 8-0 run to 21-4 as Turner's layup cut it to 57-53 with 3:44 left.
However, with a chance to slice the deficit to a single possession, UNG's Chase Champion missed the front end of a one and one free throw.
Pritzl made two free throws, ending Lander's scoring drought of four minutes and 34 seconds as the now tenuous lead grew to 59-53 with 2:48 to go. Daniels added a free throw to increase the lead to seven.
Turner's hook shot hit the front iron, Pritzl grabbed the defensive board and Daniels added two huge free throws giving the Bearcats a 62-53 lead with 1:39 left. Moore and Crawford added free throws to complete Lander's scoring.
Hear from head coach Omar Wattad post-game:
