SAVANNAH, Ga. — Trailing by as many as 13 points late in the first half of Wednesday’s 107-98 win at Armstrong Atlantic, the UNCP men's basketball team got a late boost from senior guard Shahmel Brackett.

Brackett scored 28 of his career-high 37 points in the second half and visiting UNCP used 65 percent shooting after halftime to rally back and win by nine.

It was the sixth win in the last seven games for UNCP (18-8, 11-5 PBC). It was Armstrong’s (13-10, 9-7) third straight league loss.

Brackett’s career-high scoring moved him into eighth place on UNCP’s all-time scoring list. It was the second 30-point game of his career. He finished 11-of-16 from the field and did not commit a turnover. Fellow senior George Blakeney posted his PBC-leading 12th double-double of the season with 18 points and 10 rebounds and Ben Jacobs registered his third career double-double with 16 points and 12 boards.

Aric Miller, who entered the game averaging a league-best 23.7 points per game, led Armstrong Atlantic with 25 points despite fouling out with 3:14 left.

The comeback started early in the second half.

Miller gave Armstrong a 62-50 lead on a pair of free throws 70 seconds into the second half, but the Braves whittled the deficit back to a single possession, 67-65, on a running jumper by Quamain Rose four minutes later. The Pirates pushed their lead back out to 85-78, but the Braves tied it on another jumper by Rose with 5:04 left.

A 3-pointer by Brackett 3-pointer with 4:38 left sparked a 12-2 run for UNCP. The Pirates cut the lead back to 101-98 on 3-point play by Darius Morales with 90 seconds left, but the Braves scored the game’s last six points.

UNCP Women Lose 71-61

Jazmine Kemp finished with a double-double, including a team-high 25 points and 11 rebounds, but it was not enough as Armstrong Atlantic beat the UNCP womens basketball team 71-61.

Kemp turned in 25 points on 9-of-13 shooting from the floor and 7-of-8 from the charity stripe. The sophomore forward has recorded double-doubles in back-to-back outings for UNCP (11-14, 5-11 PBC). Courtney Bolton also scored in double figures for the Braves, totaling 12 points.

Armstrong (10-13, 5-11 PBC) was led by a trio of athletes scoring in double-digits, including 20 points off the bench from Karolina Rykowska. Tyler Carlson and Demisha Mills contributed 15 points and 14 points, respectively.

“Our defensive effort was not very good in the second half. Karolina Rykowska really got it going and went off on us, but we gave her some good looks. They shot the ball extremely well. Some of the credit goes to them and some goes to our lack of defense in the second half,” said UNCP coach John Haskins. “We did some decent things offensively, we went to the free throw line and didn’t have a lot of turnovers, so we did some nice things on offense.”

UNCP took a seven point lead into the second half, but back-to-back 3-pointers from Stephenie Coney UNCP’s lead to one point, 32-31. It started a 14-2 that gave Armstrong a 39-34 lead three minutes into the half. The Pirates relied on the 3-point shot, finishing 8-12 from beyond the arc in the second half.

Armstrong took its largest lead of the night, 66-49, after Mauri Wells drained a jump shot. UNCP used the final six minutes to narrow the deficit.