Related: Men's Basketball Uses Two Late Steals To Skirt Past Columbus State

PEMBROKE – Brandon Winford matched a career-best with 24 points and sank eight free throws in the final 90 seconds to help the UNC Pembroke men's basketball team match its best start in 23 years with an 89-77 victory over Georgia College on Saturday evening in the English E. Jones Center.

The triumph helped the Braves (10-1, 2-1 PBC) grab their third-straight victory, while also helping the Black & Gold win for the 14th time in its last 15 December home games. Georgia College (7-4, 1-1) fell to 28-8 all-time against the Braves, with seven of those eight series losses coming in Pembroke. The victory also helped the Black and Gold match the 1999-00 club for the best 11-game start since the 1991-92 season.

Winford grabbed a game-best 10 rebounds to notch his 13th career double-double performance, while Quamain Rose used an 18-point, 4-assist outing to become the 30th member of UNCP's 1,000-point club. Freshman Brandon Watts chipped in 10 points to register double-digit scoring for the 10th-straight game, while Griffin Pittman added a dozen points and four assists.

Ryan Blumenthal came off the bench to tally a game-best 24 points for the Bobcats who also got 15 from Dwight Anderson. Terrell Harris, who came into the game boasting a team-best 17.6 points per game, was held to just four on 2-of-10 shooting.

UNCP trailed by as much as eight points, 42-34, in the second half after a Larrentis Thomas layup at the 18:05 mark, but put together a 12-3 run over the next three minutes to take a 46-45 lead on a trey by Cody Hughes at the 15:00 mark. An 11-3 run later in the period helped the hosts pull away for good.

A back-and-forth game for the first 19 minutes of action, Georgia College held the Braves to just 38.7 percent shooting in the first half and scored the final eight points of the opening stanza to take a 36-31 lead into the break.

The Black & Gold will take a 10-day hiatus from competition before continuing a six-game home stand on December 31 when they step out of conference to host region rival Coker (3-5) in the second half of a 1 p.m. women's and men's basketball doubleheader in the English E. Jones Center. The women will open the double dip against St. Andrews.