Clicking on all cylinders, the Lee men's basketball team bounced back from a heart-breaking loss to Christian Brothers on Saturday with their most impressive road victory since joining the Gulf South Conference.
Five Flames scored in double figures and coach Tommy Brown's club shot 61 percent from the field and 60 percent from 3-point range in crushing the University of West Florida on Thursday evening, 98-80.
"I'm really proud of the way our guys responded," said Brown. "We shared the basketball better than we have all year and I don't think we took a bad shot the entire game. West Florida does not have an impressive record but they have a lot of good athletes. Now, we just need to carry this momentum into the game with Valdosta State on Saturday."
Keevin Tyus, making a remarkable 11-of-13 shots from the floor and 3-of-3 free throws, paced the Lee scoring with 25 points. He also pulled down seven rebounds as Lee out-rebounded the host club 39-38. Chase Cullen battled foul problems but still managed 16 points and paced the Flames with eight rebounds.
Solid outside shooting by Levi Woods and Bryce Copeland made things extremely tough on the Argonauts' defense. Woods was 4-of-6 from back of the arc and tallied 14 marker to go along with three rebounds. Copeland turned in an outstanding floor game and canned three treys in totaling 13 points. Stephan Burrows continued his improved play with 11 points. He hit 4-of-5 shots from the field.
Lee led 47-42 at the break but the margin grew to 27 points with 2:42 remaining and gave coach Brown an opportunity to allow his reserves some playing time. Ten Flames put points on the board as Lee once again showed its depth. Copeland led the Lee squad in minutes played with 33 and Woods followed with 31, despite suffering with a stomach virus over the past couple of days.
Brown also liked his team's defense for the majority of the contest. The Argos were held to 40 percent shooting from the floor. The contest was clean on both ends with the Flames committing just 11 turnovers. "I can't believe they gave us just 11 assists," said Brown with a smile. West Florida committed just eight turnovers, but Lee out-scored the host club by a commanding 56-30 margin in points in the paint, despite Rantavious Gilbert staying in foul trouble most of the game and playing just 15 minutes.
Freshman Rashaan Benson paced West Florida with 14 points. Four of his teammates also scored in double-digits. Jelani Pruitt tallied 12 markers, while Austin Somerfield and Mario Stramaglia came away with 11 apiece. Somerfield was also the game's leading rebounder with nine.
The Flames will have one to prepare for Valdosta State. Saturday's GSC doubleheader begins with the women's action at 2 p.m. followed with the men's action at 4 p.m.
The Lee women came up just short falling to West Florida, 89-85 in a double overtime thriller on Thursday evening in a classic Gulf South Conference battle.
The Lady Flames trailed by 15 points at the halftime break but stormed back in the third period to cut the deficit to one heading into the final quarter of regulation.
In the fourth period the two clubs jostled back and forth before Carrie Cheeks calmly hit two free throws to tie things up at 69 with nine seconds remaining in regulation to send the contest to overtime.
The Argonauts’ Kelly Preston hit a jumper with 16 seconds left in the first extra period to tie things up at 76. The Lady Flames held the final possession but were unable to get off a game-winning shot attempt.
West Florida would pull away late in the second overtime period and hit timely foul shots to finally stave off the Lady Flames comeback effort and seal the victory.
Lee’s Erin Walsh and Christina Johnson led the way with 17 points. Walsh was 4 of 6 from the 3-point line while Johnson grabbed a team-high 13 rebounds.
“I thought we did a nice job of battling back in the second half,” said head coach Marty Rowe. “As poor as we played in the first half I was really proud of the way we came back. We continue to get into foul trouble and had to play the last few minutes without some of our key players.”
Freshman Haris Price scored 13 points and was perfect 5 of 5 from the free-throw line for the Lady Flames. Carrie Cheeks tallied 12 points and grabbed six boards while freshman Anna Woodford added 12 points of her own.
The two teams shot a nearly identical percentage from the field. Lee hit 32 of 72 shots (44.4 percent) while the Argos shot 31 of 69 (44.9 percent). The Lady Flames held a slim 47-46 advantage on the glass.
Lee committed 27 turnovers and dished off 14 assists while West Florida was guilty of 24 turnovers and registered 19 assists.
The Argonauts had four players record double-doubles. Alex Coyne’s scored 20 points and delivered 12 assists. Katie Bobos recorded 19 points to go along with 12 rebounds while Toni Brewer had 17 points and 11 boards.
Courtney Meyer added 13 points and 12 rebounds while Kelly Preston rounded out the double-figure scoring with 15 points.
“This is probably the toughest road trip of the year,” added Rowe. “We know how good West Florida is and Valdosta State is such a physical team. We need to get some rest because they (Valdosta State) beat Shorter tonight by 10.”
Thursday’s game marked the second time this season and second time in three games the Lady Flames have gone to overtime. Lee fell to Union, 73-71 in one overtime period last Thursday in Walker Arena.
The Lady Flames fall to 13-6 on the year and are 10-4 in the GSC. Rowe’s club have won the previous five contests following loses this season by an average of 15 points. West Florida improves to 12-6 overall and matches Lee for third place in the league at 10-4.
The Lady Flames will look to continue that trend on Saturday afternoon as they travel to Valdosta State to tangle with the Lady Blazers at 2 p.m.