PEMBROKE – The UNC Pembroke men's basketball team matched a season-high with 11 blocks and held the Peach Belt Conference's top offensive team to a season-low 34.2 percent shooting clip as the Braves extended their win streak out to five games with a 68-62 comeback victory over Augusta on Wednesday evening at Lumbee Guaranty Bank Court.
 
The triumph gave the Black & Gold (10-3, 6-1 PBC) consecutive wins in the series for the first time since the 2012-13 campaign, while also helping the Braves snap a two-game home losing streak against the Jaguars as well. It was the third loss in the last four outings for Augusta (7-6, 4-3) who opened up a three-game road trip on Wednesday in Pembroke.
 
Brandon Watts turned in a season-high 24 points on 7-of-10 shooting to pace the hosts, while Nigel Grant tallied 11 points and a dozen boards to notch his seventh career double-double and fourth of the season. Lumberton native David Strother complemented 11 points with seven rebounds, while also matching a career-high with five assists.
 
Deane Williams registered 18 points and nine rebounds to pace the visitors who scored 34 points in the paint, and finished on the better end of a 50-37 rebound disparity. Kyle Doyle came off the bench to record a double-double with 15 points and 10 rebounds.
 
Augusta led by as many as seven points, 34-27, after a pair of free throws by Williams just less than two minutes into the second half, but the Braves scored seven-straight points later in the period to eventually grab a 47-46 advantage after a dunk by Akia Pruitt with 8:02 to play. The Jaguars trimmed a late six-point deficit down to just two with 33 seconds remaining, but UNCP got a pair of free throws from Strother on the other end of the court, as well as a big rebound from James Murray-Boyles on the ensuing possession, to ice the outcome.
 
 A 3-pointer by Watts with 12:23 to play in the opening period gave UNCP its largest lead of the contest, 18-7, but the Braves missed 15 of their final 16 attempts before halftime to swing the momentum over to the Jaguars. Despite the field goal drought, however, Augusta never led by more than four points, and could only muster a 30-27 advantage at the break.
 
UNCP will open up a three-game road trip on Saturday when it loads the bus and heads to Georgia to take on Columbus State (3-7, 3-4) in the second half of a 1:30 p.m. doubleheader inside CSU's Frank G. Lumpkin Center. The Cougars posted a 70-67 victory over the Braves on December 17 in Pembroke.