With the University of Alabama-Huntsville defense keying in on Hollie German the entire afternoon, three of her teammates stepped up big as the Lady Flames battled past the determined Chargers, 83-77.
The Saturday Senior Night victory improved the Lady Flames to 19-4 overall and protects their lead in the Gulf South Conference race, 15-2. The visitors slipped to 15-9 and 10-8 in league play.
While German was finishing with the team-high 21 points, she was forced to go to the free-throw line 14 times and converted 13. Four of those charity attempts came in the final three minutes when Huntsville had closed the lead to four points and coach Roy Heintz was hit with a technical foul.
The Huntsville defense forced Lee to attempt 37 3-point shots and they converted 11. Senior Rachel Lockhart hit four for her 12 points. She also had five assists. Madison Lee converted four treys and grabbed a team-leading eight rebounds and 15 points. Another senior, Myriah Iles, played an important role with 15 points, four rebounds and four big blocked shots. Jenna Adams was perfect from the line and tallied nine points to go along with seven boards.
Huntsville, thanks to the play or Jordan Smith, took the fight to the Lady Flames the entire 40 minutes. Smith had 31 points and seven rebounds. She also picked up four assists. Jasmine Hammon added 21 points and led her club with eight rebounds. Kendra Jones completed the double-figure scoring with 13 points and six rebounds.
Lee shot 40 percent from the field for the game but could only convert 30 percent from behind the arc. They knocked down 24-of-30 free throws in the win.
Huntsville was held to 34 percent from the field and 21 percent from behind the arc. They stayed close the entire evening by canning 27-of-34 free throws.
The Lady Flames will face another tough challenge on Monday night when they travel to Pensacola and face the University of West Florida.