Junior forward Johnny Godette sparked the flame and Alex Wells joined Ryan Westbrooks in pouring on the coal as Lee battled back from a 14 point second half deficit to defeat host Truett-McConnell College on Saturday afternoon.
After what coach Tommy Brown described as one of the worst opening halves one of his clubs have ever played and his team down 38-26 at the break, Godette got the Flames headed in the right direction midway of the second 20 minutes. He followed a missed shot with a powerful slam dunk and came back to score three more points as the Flames sliced deeply into the Bears' lead (61-55) with less than five minutes remaining.
The surge continued and Lee finally went on top 66-63 with two minutes remaining. Wells and Westbrooks nailed crucial 3-pointers in the surge. One minute later, a Truett-McConnell player was charged with a technical foul after Wells was hacked on a 3-point attempts.
The Lee junior made 1-of-2 technical free throws and then Wells hit three more charity tosses and with only 54 seconds left, the comeback was complete and the Flames were on top 70-63.
"Godette was certainly the player who got us going and that was great to see," noted Brown who challenged his team throughout the first 35 minutes of play. "We didn't play a lick of defense in the first half and their great shooters played what I considered a game of horse with nobody guarding."
The Bears blistered the net by hitting 8-of-12 treys in the first half. Anthony Dorsey and Roderick Bombard led the assault and Dorsey finished the afternoon with a game high 32 points, including five 3's. Bombard followed with four treys and for the game the Bears made 9-of-18. Bombard pitched in with 14 and big Brandon Joyner tallied nine and ripped down 10 rebounds.
The Flames, one of the best 3-point shooting teams in the nation, were able to convert only 3-of-16 shots from behind the arc. They finished the contest by shooting 39 percent overall but canned 22 free throws in 28 attempts. On the other hand, Truett-McConnell struggled somewhat at the line, hitting 14-of-21. Lee won the rebounding battle 45-38.
Wells, thanks to 6-of-7 freebies, paced the Lee scoring with 15 points. Duran Blue, who had a key steal in the late moments of the Flames comeback, tossed in 13 points. Westbrooks tallied all 12 of his markers in the second half. He also had six rebounds. Tyrone Caldwell gave Lee four players in double-figure scoring with 10 points and a team-leading nine rebounds. Godette totaled nine points and five boards, while Josh Henley was a factor with eight points and six boards.
"We were able to come back and win back-to-back games, but we are certainly going to have to pick it up over the next three games," pointed out Brown. "We could be facing three of the top five teams in the rankings in our next three outings."
Lee will host a powerful Southern Poly team on Thursday and will challenge an extremely talented Mountain State team next Saturday to close out the regular season. One week from Thursday, Brown will take his team to Rome to face a Shorter University team that could be ranked No. 1 by the NAIA this week.