GREENWOOD, SC – Jareal Smith and Michael Panaggio combined for 53 points on a near-perfect shooting afternoon as Lander University beat Francis Marion University 96-63, Saturday afternoon (Feb. 8) in Peach Belt Conference men's basketball action.

Despite the loss, Francis Marion (8-12, 5-9) maintains sole possession of the all-important fourth place in the PBC's East Division standings. The Patriots will play a pair of conference road contests this week beginning with a Thursday night tilt at the University of North Georgia.

Junior swingman Dustin Jones led FMU with 15 points on 5-of-10 shooting. Junior point guard David Brown came off the bench to drain a trio of three-pointers in the second half to total nine points, while Evrik Gary, Robert Carpenter, and Luka Zivkovic all chipped in eight points.

Smith tallied 28 points to lead Lander (14-8, 8-5), while Panaggio scored 25 points. The two combined to hit 20-of-23 field goal attempts.

Francis Marion took an early 9-8 advantage after a three-pointer by Gary with 16:38 left in the opening half. Lander responded with a 12-0 run to take the lead for good. The Bearcats connected on 11 of their first 16 field goal attempts as the margin swelled to 27-11 near the midway point of the first stanza.

Lander led 45-23 at intermission. The Patriots never got any closer than 20 points in the final half.

FMU shot 44.4 percent from the floor, including 12-of-28 from three-point range, and was 3-of-7 at the foul line. Lander shot a blistering 62.9 percent, including 13-of-21 from beyond the arc, and 5-of-11 at the free throw stripe.