PEMBROKE – The UNC Pembroke women's basketball team limited Lander to one of its lowest shooting percentages of the season, but the Bearcats used a key 20-6 run to bridge the first and second halves and pull away from the Braves en route to a 78-58 victory on Wednesday evening in the English E. Jones Center.

The setback marked the fifth loss in the last six outings for UNCP (7-15, 5-10 PBC) who dipped into a tie for 5th in the PBC East heading into the weekend. It was the third-straight victory for Lander (20-4, 13-2) who finished off a regular season sweep of the Braves with the triumph as well.

Jasmine Huntley registered 10 points to lead UNCP who recorded 10 blocks on the night – the most for the club under head coach John Haskins. Phoenicia Lawson contributed a career-best four blocks in the defensive effort, which also included a 56-45 edge in the rebounding column. Mary Robinson tallied a career-best 11 boards in the setback as well.

Breshay Johnson came off the bench to tally a game-best 15 points for Lander, while Bre Crum chipped in 14 off the bench as well. Starters Cierra Kendrick  and Ty'hesha Reynolds both added 10.

Lander led by as much as 23 points, 78-55, after Ashleigh Zandi's 3-pointer with 23 seconds left, but Eboné Stevens put the cap on the night's scoring with a 3-pointer nearly 20 seconds later. UNCP shot just 29.7 percent in the second half, and connected on just one of their first 10 shots in the latter stanza.

The Bearcats took an 18-12 advantage on Aarika Judge's short jumper with eight minutes left in a back-and-forth first half, but the Braves stormed back to take a 24-23 lead on Katelyn Mitchell's 3-pointer at the 5:23 mark. The visitors would go on to score the last five points of the opening period to take a 35-29 lead into the intermission.

UNCP will close out a short two-game stay at home on Saturday when it locks horns with Armstrong State (11-11, 9-6) in the front end of a 1:30 p.m. doubleheader inside the English E. Jones Center.