Greenwood, S.C. ? The Georgia Southwestern Men?s Basketball Team (4-5) held on to beat Lenoir-Rhyne University (2-8), 59-56, Monday on the first day of the Lander New Year?s Classic at Horne Arena.

Marcus Scott (Maywood, Ill.) led the Hurricanes with 14 points as Georgia Southwestern was able to hang on for the win after taking a 20-point lead early in the second half.

L-R junior forward D.J. Blackmon (Albemarle, N.C.) led all scorers with 18 points while senior guard Marcus Hodges (Wake Forest, N.C.) added 11 points for the Bears, who suffered their fourth straight loss.

The Hurricanes led by as many as 20 points twice (43-23 and 45-25) early in the second half before the Bears put together a 29-10 run to cut the margin to 55-54 on a lay-up by senior guard Ryan Crawford (Stuarts Draft, Va.) with 3:12 remaining.

After L-R trimmed the lead to one point again at 57-56 thanks to a pair of free throws by freshman forward Will Carpenter (Greensboro, N.C.) with 1:03 left, Georgia Southwestern?s Ric Roderick (Bellville, Ga.) iced the game with two free throws of his own with two seconds on the clock.

A game-tying three-point attempt by Lenoir-Rhyne rimmed out as time expired.

Georgia Southwestern also connected on eight three-pointers in the first-ever meeting between the two schools.

Lenoir-Rhyne next plays the host institution, Lander, Tuesday on the final day of the tournament beginning at 3:30 p.m.