PEMBROKE – The 21
st-ranked UNC Pembroke men's basketball team scored 25 points off of 20 turnovers and produced 18 second-chance points off of an impressive 17 offensive rebounds to key a 91-67 victory over visiting Catawba on Saturday evening in the final game of the PBC/SAC Challenge at Lumbee Guaranty Bank Court.
It was the sixth-straight home victory for the Braves (2-0) who canned 10 3-pointers in the outing and posted a 50-31 advantage in the rebounding column. Catawba (0-2) has now dropped five of the last seven matchups in the series, including three-straight setbacks in Pembroke.
Nigel Grant logged his second double-double in as many games with 18 points and 11 rebounds, while sophomore
Akia Pruitt notched his ninth career double-double with 11 points and 10 boards. Lumberton native
David Strother came off the bench to post 16 points, while fellow freshman
Jamal Bryant added 14 points, five rebounds and a trio of assists.
James Murray-Boyles added 10 points as well.
Jerrin Morrison scored 16 points, while Jeremy McLaughlin and Malik Constantine both tallied 11, to pace the Indians who shot 50 percent from the field, including an impressive 8-for-16 clip from the perimeter.
McLaughlin's jumper just less than three minutes into the second half brought Catawba's deficit back to single digits, but the Braves pushed their advantage out to 70-51 on a 3-pointer by Strother with 9:25 to play and led by as much as 27 points following a free throw by
Tyrell Kirk with 29 ticks left. The Black & Gold shot better than 70 percent (12-of-17) from the field over a 10-minute stretch in the final stanza.
The Braves scored nine of the first 11 points in the opening half of play and had pushed their advantage out to double digits, 27-16, less than 12 minutes in. R.J. Robinson's 3-pointer at the 7:32 mark sparked an 8-0 run for the Indians over the next 91 seconds that made it a five-point game. The hosts, however, would carry a 39-33 advantage into the intermission.
UNCP will open the road portion of its 2017-18 regular season schedule on Tuesday when it makes the short trip up U.S. 74 to battle Wingate (???) at Cuddy Arena. Tipoff is scheduled for 7 p.m. on ESPN3.
