In a contest that was never in doubt, Lee's Lady Flames zipped to a 36-18 halftime lead en route to a 76-48 victory over visiting Brenau University in Walker Arena on Thursday night.
Coach Marty Rowe voiced frustration with his club after he watched it commit 18 turnovers and 23 personal fouls. "We never executed on either end of the floor," he explained. "Yes, we got a victory tonight but if we do not get some things straightened out, we are going to run into some problems over the next two weeks.
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The Lady Flames, ranked seventh in the latest NAIA poll, will leave Cleveland on Friday and travel to South Carolina to test Voorhees College on Saturday at 4 p.m. On Sunday, they will continue the road adventures and relax in Brunswick, Ga. before facing Coastal Georgia in a key SSAC contest on Monday evening.
Jenna Adams paced Lee's overall attack. The sophomore tallied a double-double, 19 points and 12 rebounds. She was 7-of-13 from the floor and 2-of-4 from behind the 3-point arc. Hollie German totaled 20 points and was 9-of-19 from the field. Julia Zimmerman connected on four 3-pointers and totaled 12 points. Freshman Melanie Barker finished with eight points and Mariah Iles tossed in six points and grabbed six rebounds.
The Lady Flames won the battle of the boards 44-28 and held Brenau's leading scorer Gabby Harvey to only 10 points and four rebounds. Harvey came into the contest averaging a double-double. She was the only Golden Tiger in double-digit scoring. Tala Black, Sarah Ward and Anela Durmic each had six points.
Lee's defense held Brenau to only three field goals in the opening 20 minutes and for the game the Gainesville, Ga. club only shot 30 percent (12-of-40). They also struggled at the free-throw line, converting just 16-of-27 attempts. Their best effort came from behind the 3-point line, where they knocked down 6-of-14.
The Lady Flames shot 44 percent for the game (28-of-63). They made 7-of-20 treys and 11-of-17 free throws. Eighteen turnovers compared to just 12 assists also frustrated the Lee coaching staff.
"We have a problem with getting in practice time over the next couple of weeks," noted Rowe. "We have seven games in a 14-day span and there are several key conference games during this period. Our girls have to understand that time is growing short as we near post-season time."