FAYETTEVILLE – Despite trailing for much of the last five minutes of regulation, the UNC Pembroke men's basketball team shot better than 85 percent from the field in overtime to complete a season sweep of Fayetteville State with a 95-88 win over the Broncos on Wednesday evening in Felton J. Capel Arena.

The win kept the Braves (7-0) perfect through seven games, while also giving the Black & Gold its sixth-straight series victory over Fayetteville State (6-3). The setback snapped a five-game winning streak for the Broncos who had not tasted defeat since an 81-74 loss to UNCP in Pembroke on November 21.

Ben Jacobs came off the bench to score a career-high 21 points on 9-of-14 shooting as five UNCP players reached double figures in the scoring column. Freshman Brandon Watts chipped in 19 points, Quamain Rose added 17 points and Griffin Pittman keyed a 14-point outing with a perfect 9-for-9 showing from the free throw line. Brandon Winford registered his 12th career double-double performance with 15 points and a game-best 12 rebounds.

Joshua Dawson tallied a game-best 30 points for the Broncos, while also adding 11 assists and seven rebounds to pace the hosts. Carl McCray turned in 19 points for Fayetteville State as well.

"That's the best Fayetteville State team that we have ever played against and I think they have a great chance of winning the CIAA title," said UNCP head coach Ben Miller. "We had nine turnovers in the first half and that hurt us a little bit. We didn't shoot it very well tonight, but we played very good on the defensive end. It was a great college basketball game."

Devin Thompson gave the Broncos a 75-74 lead with a 3-pointer just 25 seconds into the extra period, but Pittman's perimeter shot on the other end sparked the visitors on a game-changing 10-1 run over the next 72 seconds that eventually gave UNCP an 84-76 advantage with 3:23 to play. Fayetteville State climbed to within four points, 84-80, at the 2:07 mark, but clutch free throw shooting by the Braves helped push their advantage back out to 10 points with less than a minute left.

The Braves led by as much as seven points, 46-39, just more than 2-1/2 minutes into the second half, but Devin Thompson's 3-pointer with 14:05 left put the hosts on top, 53-51. The game's final 14 minutes would feature four tie scores and seven lead changes. Fayetteville State took a four-point lead, 72-68, on a trey by Torian Showers with 3:23 remaining, but the Braves scored the next four points, including a game-tying jumper by Jacobs with 88 seconds left.

Pittman nearly gave the Braves the win in regulation, but his last-second shot glanced off of the backboard and careened off the front of the iron to send the game into overtime.

The Braves will close out a short two-game road trip on Saturday when they head to Greenville, S.C., to open up Peach Belt Conference play against undefeated Lander (7-0, 0-0 PBC) in the second half of a 1:30 p.m. men's and women's basketball doubleheader in Horne Arena.