The Lee women's basketball team got off to an impressive start in NCAA Division II play with a convincing 82-66 victory over host Carson-Newman on Tuesday evening in the Holt Fieldhouse.
The Lady Flames (3-0) blistered the net in the first half by connecting on 9-of-16 3-point attempts and held a commanding 47-30 lead at the break. The margin continued to grow in the second 20 minutes and reached 26 points (61-35) on a rally led by Karley Miller, Madison Lee and Jenna Adams.
"We did a lot of good things tonight against a talented Carson-Newman team," said Lee coach Marty Rowe.
"Give Carson-Newman credit. They never quit. This was an awfully good way to open our play on the road."
Senior Hollie German paced the Lee scoring and had a solid effort across the board. She tallied 27 points and made 4-of-8 3-pointers, 5-of-7 free throws, dished off six assists and pulled down four rebounds. Adams also knocked down four treys and completed her third straight double-double with 20 points and 11 rebounds. Myriah Iles came off the bench to score 10 points and garner six rebounds as the Lady Flames won the battle of the boards 46-32. Miller pitched in with eight points and Lee added seven points and four assists.
For the game, the Lady Flames shot 44 percent from the field and made 11-of-30 shots from behind the arc. They marched to the line 19 times and canned 15.
Lee's defense held the Eagles to just 26 percent shooting for the game. However, they did knock down 10 3-pointers and shot 40 percent from long range. Chante Markus had 15 points for the losers and Kailyn Brooks totaled 14.
"Our defense, especially Madison, Rachel (Lockhart) and Karley, did a nice job," noted Rowe. "We held their leading scorer to only four points."
The Lee coach could take only a few negatives from the solid performance. "We committed a lot of silly fouls and had three players foul out," he pointed out. "We sent them to the line 32 times. We definitely will have to work on cleaning that up."
Rowe said Saturday afternoon's contest at North Georgia would be an even tougher test for his ladies. Tip-off time at Dahlonega is slated for 3 p.m.