SALISBURY – The UNC Pembroke men's basketball team scored 25 points off of 21 Lenoir-Rhyne turnovers and rallied back from a 10-point deficit in the second half to top the Bears 98-90 in double overtime in the opening game of the SAC/PBC Challenge on Friday evening.

The triumph snapped a two-game series losing streak for the Braves (1-0) who improved to 6-1 in season openers under head coach Ben Miller. It was the first season-opening loss for Lenoir-Rhyne (0-1) since the 2011-12 campaign.

Brandon Watts scored 23 points on 7-of-14 shooting in his collegiate debut to lead a quintet of Braves with double-figure scoring nights. Brandon Winford turned in his 11th career double-double with 20 points and 13 rebounds, while Griffin Pittman chipped in 16. Keysheen Hinton and Ben Jacobs came off the bench to chip in 14 and 13 points, respectively.

Will Perry registered a game-best 30 points for the Bears who also got 19 points from Derrion Evans. Rob Noyes tallied 16 points for Lenoir-Rhyne before fouling out in the second overtime period.

UNCP outscored Lenoir-Rhyne 50-28 in the paint and used a +20 margin (51-31) in the rebounding column to key 18 second-chance points. The Braves also got 31 points from its bench.

The Black & Gold used a rare 4-point play from Watts to grab an 82-76 lead with 2:08 to play in the first extra period, but the Bears out-scored the Braves 8-2 over the next two minutes, including Perry's clutch game-tying 3-pointer with nine seconds left, to send the game into a second overtime period.

Noyes helped Lenoir-Rhyne stake claim to an 88-86 advantage just 90 seconds into double overtime, but L-R went 0-for-4 from the field and turned the ball over three times the rest of the way out. The Braves finished out the contest with a 10-1 run to win going away.

The Bears scored 17 of the first 22 points in the second half and led by as much as 10 points, 63-53, on a layup by Noyes with 8:05 left in regulation. Watts and Winford would spearhead a 10-0 run over the next five minutes, however, that tied the game at 63 apiece with just more than five minutes left to play. L-R regained a 5-point lead just 47 seconds later, but the Braves climbed to within one, 72-71, before sending Hinton to the charity stripe on a two-shot foul with 12 seconds left.

Hinton drained the first free throw attempt to tie the score, but the second attempt went off the back of the rim.

The Black & Gold shot better than 50 percent from the field in the opening 13-1/2 minutes of the first half and grabbed a 32-20 lead after a short jumper by Pittman at the 6:30 mark. The tides would turn after that, however, as the Braves shot 2-for-11 (.181) down the stretch. The Bears canned a trio of 3-pointers in the final 90 seconds, including two by Evans, to whittle their deficit down to just five, 38-33, at the half.

The Braves will close out play in the SAC/PBC Challenge on Saturday when it faces tournament-host Catawba. Tipoff is scheduled for 8 p.m.