PEMBROKE – Brandon Watts scored a team-high 24 points, including a go-ahead dunk with 74 seconds left, and the UNC Pembroke men's basketball team rallied back from an 11-point deficit with 3-1/2 minutes left to stun Flagler, 97-93, on Saturday afternoon in St. Augustine, Fla.
 
The victory kept the Braves (20-7, 13-5 PBC) in a tie with Augusta atop the Peach Belt Conference standings and sets up a showdown with I-95 rival Francis Marion on Wednesday in Pembroke that could earn the Braves at least a share of their first PBC title in program history.
 
It was the sixth-straight loss for the Saints (9-16, 3-15) who had designated Saturday's game as "Bo Clark Day" to honor their head coach who will retire at the end of the season after 28 years at the helm of the program.
 
Watts led a quartet of Braves with double-figure scoring days as freshman Akia Pruitt chipped in 15 points and a team-high seven boards, and Mike Smith came off the bench to register 14 points, including a 4-of-5 mark from downtown. Junior big man Nigel Grant added 11 points, and Fayetteville native Alex Bradley tallied six points and a game-best eight assists.
 
Vaughn McCall scored a career high 28 points to lead the Saints who canned 11 of their 21 attempts from the perimeter, as well as went 22-for-28 from the charity stripe. Jeffercy Jean finished the game with a career high 23 points.
 
Jean's fast-break layup with 3:46 left to play helped Flagler stake claim to an 89-78 advantage, but Pruitt's jumper on the other end of the court sparked the Braves on an 18-1 run that eventually gave them a 96-90 advantage 17 seconds left. The visitors went 6-for-7 from the floor in the momentum-changing run, and out-rebounded the hosts by a 7-3 disparity.
 
UNCP scored the first seven points in the opening stanza to set the early tone, but the Saints shot 6-for-10 from downtown in the first half and eventually grabbed their first lead of the contest on a triple by McCall at the 9:27 mark. Flagler led by as much as seven points with 1:43 left before the break, but UNCP ended the half on a 7-0 run to give the game a 42-all score at the intermission.
 
The Black & Gold will close out the regular season portion of its 2016-17 schedule on Wednesday when it entertains Francis Marion (11-15, 6-11) in the back half of a 5:30 p.m. Senior Night doubleheader at Lumbee Guaranty Bank Court.