The North Georgia College & State University men's basketball team fought back from a 20-point deficit on Wednesday, but came up on the short end of a 93-89 loss to Lander University at Horne Arena in Greenwood, S.C.

Lander (10-4, 4-3 Peach Belt Conference) snapped a two-game skid and gets back on track in Peach Belt play, while the slide continues for the Saints (7-10, 2-4), who dropped their fifth straight overall and fourth consecutive game in league play after starting 2-0.

The Saints held an early lead as Elijah Smith and Pat Moynihan got the offense started with a pair of buckets to give the Saints a 17-13 advantage for what would be the largest lead of the game for North Georgia.

The Bearcats quickly responded and started to pull away with six minutes left in the half, using a 14-2 run, capped by a Dwight Tolbert three-pointer in the corner to give Lander a 47-30 lead with 2:20 left in the opening half.

Lander made 5 of 6 3-pointers in the first half to pace the Bearcats to a commanding 18-point lead heading to intermission.

The Saints slowly worked their way back into the game, cutting the lead down to 14 at the 13:27 mark, but the Bearcats answered with back-to-back 3-pointers over the next 25 seconds to push their lead to 20.

Lander led by as many as 20 points at four different times in the second half, but the Saints recovered from each deficit and rallied to pull within 10 points at 75-65 following four straight free throws from Moynihan with 6:21 remaining.