PEMBROKE – The 21^st-ranked UNC Pembroke men's basketball team will officially lift the lid on its 2017-18 campaign on Friday afternoon when the Braves suit up to take on instate rival Lenoir-Rhyne as part of the four-team PBC/SAC Challenge at Lumbee Guaranty Bank Court. Tipoff is slated for 3 p.m.
 
Fellow Peach Belt Conference member Francis Marion will battle Catawba in the tournament opener on Friday at 1 p.m. The two-day tournament will conclude on Saturday with a 5 p.m. contest between Francis Marion and Lenoir-Rhyne, as well as a 7 p.m. tilt between the Braves and Catawba.
 
Fans can follow all four games for free via a live video stream on the UNCP Braves YouTube channel with Matt Sabados handling the play-by-play duties. The game can also be followed via a live statistics link which can be found at UNCPBraves.com.

 

No. 21 UNC Pembroke vs. Lenoir-Rhyne
Date & Tip Time	Friday, November 10 at 3 p.m. ET
Location	Pembroke, N.C. | Lumbee Guaranty Bank Court
Live Statistics	Stat Broadcast
Video	UNCP Sports Network
Peach Belt Conference	Men's Basketball

 

 

No. 21 UNC Pembroke vs. Catawba
Date & Tip Time	Saturday, November 11 at 7 p.m. EST
Location	Pembroke, N.C. | Lumbee Guaranty Bank Court
Live Statistics	Stat Broadcast
Video	UNCP Sports Network
Peach Belt Conference	Men's Basketball

 

• UNCP capped off the preseason exhibition portion of its 2017-18 campaign with a tight 72-66 loss at Northern Iowa on Sunday afternoon in Cedar Falls. The Braves trailed by 18 late in the first half of that one, but stormed all the way back to take a 74-66 lead with 4:55 left to play.
• The Black & Gold opened its exhibition schedule with a dominant 81-67 victory over All Army Sports on October 26. UNCP also suffered a 93-70 setback at Creighton on Friday evening.
• The Braves are just 12-13 all-time in season openers since making the move to the NCAA Division II ranks, but are 7-2 in those contests under head coach Ben Miller. UNCP won five-straight season openers from 2010-11 before suffering an 86-64 setback to Lenoir-Rhyne in 2015-16. The Black & Gold defeated the Bears 81-76 last season in Hickory.
• The Black & Gold will ride a four-game home win streak into Friday's contest against Lenoir-Rhyne, including a three-game winning skein in regular season play. UNCP won each of its last three regular season home games in 2016-17 before posting an 87-83 win over North Georgia in the PBC Tournament quarterfinals.
• UNCP is 14-10 in home openers beginning with the 1992-93 season and has won seven-straight home openers heading into the 2017-18 campaign. In addition, the Braves are 69-20 (.775) at Lumbee Guaranty Bank Court over the last six seasons.
• The Braves are 36-10 (.783) against non-conference foes over the last five seasons, including a perfect 11-0 record against such opponents during the 2013-14 campaign. UNCP has won five-straight home games against non-conference opponents heading into Friday's matchup.
• UNCP's 10 returning players this season accounted for more than 72 percent of last season's point total, as well as nearly 74 percent of its rebounding total. The Black & Gold led the Peach Belt Conference in both scoring (85.9 points/game) and rebounding margin (+7.4) last season. The Braves also led the league in scoring margin (+8.3), rebounds per game (41.4), steals (9.3) and offensive rebounds (15.5) last season.
• Skipper Ben Miller returns for his 10th season at the helm of the Black & Gold and needs just 18 wins to match former Pembroke State legend Lacey Gane (1965-75) atop the program's all-time wins list. Miller has led the Braves to a 151-115 (.568) record in nine seasons as head coach. During that time, UNCP has made four trips to the NCAA Tournament (2010-11, 2012-13, 2014-15, 2016-17) and has reached the 20-win plateau three times. The program registered just three 20-win seasons in the 34 years prior to Miller's arrival in 2008-09.

 
ABOUT LENOIR-RHYNE

• The Bears return two starters and four other letterwinners from last season's club that registered a 10-17 record, including a 9-13 mark in the South Atlantic Conference
• Senior guard Reed Lucas is the top returning scorer for the Bears, averaging 13.0 points per contest with 69 treys last year. Filip Leskovar averaged 2.9 points and 3.0 rebounds in 24 starts for Lenoir-Rhyne in 2016-17.
• The Bears were picked to finish eighth in the South Atlantic Conference in a preseason poll of the league's 11 head coaches.
• The Braves are 15-9 all-time against Lenoir-Rhyne in a series that dates back all the way to the 1967-68 season. UNCP is 4-3 in the series since joining the NCAA Division II ranks, including a 2-1 clip against the Bears under Ben Miller.

 
ABOUT CATAWBA

• The Indians return two starters and six other letterwinners off of last season's squad that posted an 18-11 record, including a 12-10 clip inside South Atlantic Conference play.
• Catawba returns its top two scorers from a year ago, including Jameel Taylor who averaged 17.6 points, 6.3 rebounds and 3.7 assists per game. Jerrin Morrison tallied 15.8 points and a team-best 7.0 rebounds in 29 games last season.
• The Indians were picked to finish fourth in the South Atlantic Conference in a preseason poll of the league's 11 head coaches.
• Catawba leads the all-time series with the Braves, 24-14, in a series that dates all the way back to the 1965-66 campaign. UNCP is 3-1 against the Indians as a member of NCAA Division II, with all four of those meetings having come over the last six years. The Indians registered a 98-91 win over the Braves last season at the Lenoir-Rhyne-hosted PBC/SAC Challenge.