PEMBROKE – The UNC Pembroke men's basketball team used an old-fashioned 3-point play by Mike Smith to grab an 84-78 advantage with 2:04 left to play, but visiting Armstrong State scored the game's final nine points, including a 3-pointer by Kalen Clifton as time expired, to upend the Braves, 87-84, on Saturday afternoon in Pembroke.
 
The setback marked the second-straight loss for the Black & Gold (14-6, 7-4 PBC) whose last five losses have all been decided by a single possession. It was the third-straight win for the Pirates (9-11, 4-7) who rolled into the weekend fresh off an 86-79 upset win over No. 24 Augusta on Wednesday.
 
Brandon Watts scored 13 points to lead the way for UNCP who got double-digit scoring efforts from five other players as well. Carson Mounce came off the bench to score a season-high 13 points on 6-of-7 shooting, while James Murray-Boyles chipped in a dozen points in his first start of the campaign.
 
Clifton poured in a career-high 28 points to lead all scorers, but the visitors also got 21 points from K.J. James and 19 more from Corey Tillery.
 
The Braves led by as much as 11 points after Smith's driving layup at the 7:58 mark in the second half, but Armstrong State had whittled its deficit down to just a single possession after a lay-in by James just more than three minutes later. The hosts took what appeared to be a comfortable six-point margin after Smith's heroics, but the Pirates forced a controversial turnover on the next possession for the Braves, and Alex Bradley missed a pair of 3-pointers in the final 49 seconds to seal the outcome.
 
The lead changed hands six times in the opening 12 minutes of the contest, but the Braves scored 10-straight points to take a 33-23 advantage late in the opening stanza. They would eventually lug a 39-31 lead into the locker rooms.
 
UNCP will hit the road again on Monday it makes the short trip down I-95 to battle Francis Marion (7-12, 3-8) in the back half of a 5:30 p.m. doubleheader inside the Smith University Center.