FLAMES ROUT HIWASSEE, 106-73
Lee Sports Information
Led by a breakout performance by sophomore Chad Lee the Lee men's basketball team dominated Hiwassee College from start to finish in Monday evening's 106-73 victory at Walker Arena.
Lee finished with a double-double, registering a career-high 24 points while grabbing 11 rebounds. Jamorris Gaines added 23 points and eight boards. Gaines got the crowd on their feet for the second straight game with another gravity defying slam dunk in the second half. Will Barnes tallied 19 points to go along with five rebounds and four assists. Big Steve Bennett provided the punch down in the post with 14 markers and eight rebounds.
"Chad Lee hit some shots early tonight and just looked real comfortable shooting the basketball all night long. He shoots the ball real well in practice every day and did a nice job for us tonight." said coach Tommy Brown.
Plenty of Flames saw action in the contest. Evan Forhetz dished out four assists and saw extended minutes with Chase Dunn out with the flu. Logan Ramsey added five points and four rebounds. The Lee bench finished with 57 points.
"Evan Forhetz played well tonight taking Chase's minutes." noted Brown. "Chase (Dunn) had the flu and we hope the flu bug doesn’t hit anybody else on our team.
The Flames shot a sizzling 52.1 percent from the field and 46.4 percent from behind the arc. The Tigers shot 40.4 percent from the field and 37.9 percent from 3-point land. Lee was excellent in the assist-to-turnover department. The Flames dished out 24 assists as a team and were guilty of just 12 floor mistakes. Hiwassee managed 11 assists while committing 12 turnovers.
"I was very pleased with 24 assists" Brown stated. "I thought once again though our defensive intensity lacked in the second half. We’ve got to play tougher defensive in the second half.”
The Flames used their size to dominate the Tigers. Lee won the battle on the glass outrebounding Hiwassee 53-20 while outscoring the Tigers 46-18 in the paint.
Justin Browner paced the Hiwassee offensive attack. Browner finished with 19 points , hitting 3-of-6 from 3-point distance. Joel Bailey was the only other Tiger in double-figures with 15 markers.
With the victory the No. 2 Flames move to 26-1 on the year. The loss drops Hiwassee to 7-22 overall.
Brown's club will now turn their attention to Thursday evening when Southern States Athletic Conference rival Truett-McConnell comes calling. The Flames will honor their five seniors before the final home contest of the year at Walker Arena. Tip time is set for 8 p.m.
“Senior night is always a special night. We barely got out of Truett-McConnell with a win the first time we played them so we know it's going to be a battle. They are trying to qualify for the conference tournament so we are expecting a tough game." Brown acknowledged. "They've got some talented players and we will have to do a better job defensively than we did the first time around."