PEMBROKE – The UNC Pembroke football team held visiting Lenoir-Rhyne to its second-lowest offensive output of the season and used an early fourth-quarter touchdown from Miles Grant to go ahead for good as the Braves snapped a five-game losing streak with a 14-10 win over the Bears on Homecoming in Pembroke.
 
The win helped the Black & Gold improve to 9-2 all-time in Homecoming contests, as well as 9-2 in regular season home finales. The setback snapped a two-game road win streak for the Bears (3-5) who fell to 0-2 all-time in the series with the Braves.
 
Grant ran for 100 yards and a touchdown to register his second career 100-yard rushing game, while JoJo Spann hauled in six catches for 93 yards, including a 35-yard touchdown pass from fellow senior E.J. Williams in the first quarter. Dominick Samson threw for 158 yards on 17-of-31 passing with one interception for the hosts as well.
 
Bikembe Kearned recorded a career-best 10 tackles (3 solo) and forced a fumble to lead Code Black on the night, while junior Tyler Hinton tallied 1-1/2 sacks to pass assistant coach DeVante Bush atop the program's all-time sacks list. Shawn Everett picked off his team-leading third pass of the season – the most for a UNCP player in three seasons.
 
It was the second-lowest offensive output of the season for the Bears who registered just 199 yards of offense earlier this season in a home win over North Greenville. The Bears were just 2-of-14 on third down conversions in Saturday's contest, including a 1-for-7 mark in the second half.
 
Lenoir-Rhyne scored on its opening possession of the contest, driving 50 yards on six plays before settling for a 54-yard field goal from Chase Allbaugh. The Braves took their first lead of the contest later in the period when Williams took a lateral from Samson and found Spann wide open down the middle on a 35-yard trick play.
 
UNCP nearly padded its lead midway through the second quarter, but Kyle Dugger ran freshman Kemai Parker down from behind and stripped the ball at the 7-yard line to spoil the rookie's first collegiate reception.
 
The Bears retook the lead on Nelson Brown's 2-yard scoring dive with 6:48 left in the third quarter, and then drove inside the UNCP 20-yard line early in the fourth quarter. However, the Braves got a big sack from Michael Clark on second down, and James Martin tipped away a pass on 4^th-and-23 from the 32-yard line to turn the momentum.
 
UNCP forced turnovers on two of Lenoir-Rhyne's final three possessions to seal the outcome.
 
The Braves will open up a regular season-ending two-game road trip on Saturday when they trek to Mars Hill (2-6) for a 1 p.m. contest at Meares Stadium.