JACKSON, Tenn. – Union University’s streaking Bulldogs scored 30 points off Lee turnovers and posted a convincing 94-75 Gulf South Conference victory over the Flames on Thursday evening.
The victory improved Union’s record to 14-4 overall and 8-4 in conference play. The Flames dropped to 9-8 overall and 4-8 in GSC play.
The Bulldogs rode the red-hot shooting of Marterrace Brock (31 points) and Corieon Pearson (28 points) to victory. Overall Union turned in a near-perfect performance, shooting 54 percent from the field, 41 percent from behind the arc and converted 17-of-19 free-throw attempts.
On the other hand, the Flames had a solid shooting night from the field (43 percent).
However, they struggled from 3-point range (27 percent) and were only awarded 11 charity tosses, making good on seven.
Chase Cullen paced the Lee scoring with 14 points. Jervon Johnson and Cory Billingsley followed with 11. Stedmon Ford countered with 10 markers, while Bryce Copeland canned three shots from behind the arc and totaled nine points.
The Flames were guilty of 30 turnovers and most led to break-away baskets by the Bulldogs. Union was guilty of just seven turnovers. The Flames did win the rebounding battle 23-17.
“We have worked and worked on not turning the basketball over,” said coach Tommy Brown after the loss. “Many times we were driving the basketball in too deep and didn’t have anywhere to go with it. Give Union credit, tonight they were an outstanding basketball team. I don’t know if cutting down on the turnovers would have helped because of the way they were shooting the ball.”
Brown also noted that the Bulldogs used a different offensive strategy against his Flames than they had used in a December meeting that Lee came out victorious. “They played most of the game with four guards,” he noted. “We did a decent job on the boards and were able to score when we got the ball inside, but again turnovers killed any hopes of our comeback.”
After trailing 49-35 at the half, Lee cut the Union lead down to six points early in the second stanza and after a couple more surges by the Bulldogs, cut the margin back down to eight before the host put the contest out of reach with some eight minutes remaining.
The Flames will play the final leg of a five-game road trip on Saturday when they journey to Memphis to face Christian Brothers. CBU lost to Shorter University on Thursday in Memphis.
“We’ve got about 24 hours to get ready for Christian Brothers’ Princeton offense,” said Brown. “Our guys are mad and maybe that will help us as we prepare for Saturday’s game.”