AIKEN, S.C. – The University of South Carolina Aiken men's basketball team used a strong second half to post a 64-54 victory over visiting Georgia Southwestern Saturday night.

The Pacers are now 9-8 on the season, including a 4-4 mark against league foes. The Hurricanes are 7-8 on the year and drop to 2-6 against conference competition.

Dominic Early guided head coach Vince Alexander's team with a squad-best 21 points to go along with seven rebounds. Albert Miller III was the only other USC Aiken student-athlete in double figures as he netted 11. Tyreece Brice accounted for seven markers while Arbry Butler and Hendrix Emu had six apiece. Butler was a strong defensive presence, swatting away five shots to go along with grabbing five boards in 16 minutes of work.

For the game, the Pacers hit 20-of-57 shots from the floor (35.1 percent), but canned six-of-15 from downtown (40 percent). The team was nearly flawless at the charity stripe, hitting 18-of-20 (90 percent) while Georgia Southwestern made just nine-of-18 (50 percent).

The biggest difference was in the turnover battle as Alexander's team had 10 miscues while the Hurricanes tallied 20. USC Aiken converted those turnovers into 17 points while Georgia Southwestern converted the 10 turnovers into just eight points.

The Pacers jumped out to a 9-1 lead just 3:15 into the contest behind the solid play of Early and Emu. Early opened the scoring with a jumper and Hendrix slipped past the defense off a pass from André Anthony for a bucket. Early's three-pointer made it 7-1 and Emu's next basket pushed the margin to eight.

The Hurricanes slowly cut into the lead and scored the last five points of the first half as the visitors took a 29-26 edge into halftime. During the stretch, USC Aiken was held without a field goal for the last 3:08 of the opening period.

Neither team was clicking from the floor in the opening moments of the first half, but Alexander's squad managed to take a 30-29 lead behind free throws from Early and Anthony. Early's thunderous dunk off a pass from Rashad Lewis gave the Pacers a 32-29 edge.

USC Aiken widened the gap to six with 14:19 to play after Brice hit a three-pointer and Anthony made a pair of charity tosses. The home team stretched the working margin to double figures when Emu drained a short jumper with 10:50 to go. However, the Hurricanes managed to whittle the lead to just four at the 7:12 mark.

Alexander's team responded quickly as Butler made a lay-up and Early converted an old-fashioned three-point play for a 52-44 lead. 

After a three-pointer by Georgia Southwestern at the 4:22 mark that cut the lead to six, 56-50, the Pacers held the visitors without another field goal until the 1:50 mark. By that time, the team held a substantial 62-40 lead and would cruise to the 64-54 victory. 

The Pacers return to action Monday when they travel to Montevallo. Tip-off is slated for 4:30 p.m. EST.