Marty Rowe did not come right out and say statistics lie, but the Lee women's basketball coach did point out that they can sometimes be deceiving.
After all, his Lady Flames did shoot 52 percent from the field, out-rebound their opponent 54-25 and convert 83 percent of their free throws on Friday night in the opening round of the NCCAA Mid-East Region, hosted by Union University.
What disturbed the veteran leader most was his team's 18 turnovers and a subpar performance on the defensive end.
"For some reason we can never really get in sync," said the disappointed coach after Lee breezed past Tennessee Temple, 82-47.
"If we play this way tomorrow night against Union, we will be in deep trouble," he stressed. "We didn't move our feet on defense and Union will take complete advantage of that. We've got to find a way to correct some things quickly."
The Lady Flames and Lady Bulldogs have already tangled twice in Gulf South action this season. Lee won the first meeting by two points at Union and won by five in Walker Arena. "You can see that both games could have gone either way and we've got to be on top of our game to have a shot at winning."
The Lady Flames started slow and the Lady Crusaders came out ready to play in the opening 10 minutes of Friday's matchup. However, Hollie German and Jenna Adams warmed up and led Lee to a 41-25 advantage by the halftime break.
Although Lee continued to have ball control problems in the second 20 minutes, Rowe's club was far superior to the Chattanooga club and outscored Temple 41-22 in the second half.
German's performance included 25 points, four rebounds and four assists. She surpassed Brooke McKinnon and moved into second place in career points with 2,220. She is 51 points short of the all-time record held by Vikki Clemmons.
Adams powered home another double-double performance with 18 points and 15 rebounds in 23 minutes of playing time. Karley Miller rounded out the double-figure scoring with 11, while Kayla Beavers added eight markers and Myriah Iles came off the bench to score seven points and grab five rebounds.
"Myriah fouled out in only 13 minutes of playing time," noted Rowe. "We are still working to get her to stay out of foul problems. She's forcing Karley (Miller) to play extra minutes in almost every game."
For the losing Lady Crusaders, Angel Foster finished with 14 points and five rebounds. TaQuasha O'Neal followed with 12 points. Lee held Temple to 28 percent shooting from the field. The Lady Crusaders also converted just 2-of-14 3-point attempts.
"Coach Kenrick Liburd has done a nice job with the Temple program," stressed Rowe. "Although his club was seemingly out of striking distance early in the second half, his players continued to fight until the final buzzer. That tells me his program is headed in the right direction."
The showdown between the Lady Flames and Lady Bulldogs is scheduled for an 8 p.m. EDT tip on Saturday. Union advanced with an easy 100-58 victory over Bluefield in Friday's opening game.