PEMBROKE – Nationally-ranked Lander used a graduate run to overpower UNCP and pull away from the Lady Braves to continue its quest for an unbeaten season and grab a conference win on the road with a 66-51 victory on Wednesday evening at the English E. Jones Center.

No. 2 Lander (16-0,6-0 PBC) took the first lead with an outside jumper from Shannon McKever but Domonique Washington would tie the game at 2-2 with a jumper in the paint. As the half continued, the Lady Bearcats progressively increased their lead to eight points at halftime on the strength of out-rebounding the Lady Braves (5-8, 1-4) by five.

Lander took its largest lead over the Black and Gold of the game at 16 points at the 5:55 mark on Jasmine Judge's 3-point shot. Despite UNCP's efforts to overcome the Lander, rebounding and shooting continued its affliction on the Black and Gold. Lander out-rebounded UNCP, 42-35, and out-shot the Lady Braves 42.9 percent compared to 29.1 percent.

McKever registered a double-double with 10 points and 13 rebounds, along with registering a game-high seven blocks, a trio of assists and one steal. Tasheba Butler collected a team-best 14 points and eight rebounds, while Judge and Mukia Myrick tallied 12 points and five assists apiece.

JaToya Kemp nearly clenched a double-double with a game-high 14 points and nine rebounds. DayDay Ray and Washington each scored eight points apiece as Ray collected six rebounds and Washington totaled three assists and a trio of steals. The Black and Gold finished the game shooting 14-of-18 (77.8 percent) from the charity stripe.

"We executed according to our game plan, but we missed key shots in the second-half and had some confusion on the defensive rotations," said UNCP head coach John Haskins. "We played hard, but Lander is a great team and played much better defense than we have in the past."

UNCP will hit the road to compete against PBC opponent Columbus State (8-3, 1-1) on Saturday in the Frank G. Lumpkin, Jr. Center in Columbus, Ga., before meeting up with Georgia Southwestern (7-5, 1-2 ) on Sunday in the Storm Dome at the Student Success Center in Americus, Ga. Both games will tip off at 1:30 p.m.