The old adage, "it's not how you start but how you finish", rang true for the Lee women's basketball team on Wednesday evening as they used a second half surge to defeat Young Harris College, 70-65.
The Lady Flames were outscored by 10 points in the first half and turned the ball over 15 times but the second half was a reversal of script as Lee ran past the Mountain Lions, 43-27 to seal its second victory over the young season.
Young Harris had three opportunities to tie the game up in the final seconds but could not connect on the three-ball.
Lee freshman Lindsay Roddy finally came down with the rebound and calmly drained two free throws with just five seconds left to finish off the comeback road win.
"We are going to deal with some ups and downs as a young team. At times we are going to look like we know what we're doing and at times we are going to look completely loss," said head coach Marty Rowe. "I didn't think we did a very good job early establishing Carrie (Cheeks) down low. Once we did that the game changed because they had to guard us from the inside and out.
Junior sharpshooter Erin Walsh led the Lady Flames with 26 points on 9 of 15 shooting from the field. Walsh buried five 3-pointers in the contest and was 3 of 4 from the foul line.
"Erin started looking for her shot and that helped us in the second half. Our young players are going to need the veterans like her, Carrie, Halley (Cornellison) and Shelby (Brown) to play well this season," added Rowe.
Cheeks posted a double-double with 13 points and 10 rebounds. Cornellison battled through an ankle injury suffered in Saturday's contest to register eight points, four rebounds and three assists. Roddy, the young floor general for the Lady Flames, added six points and pulled down eight rebounds.
"Linsday played great and we need our guards to be able to rebound like she did tonight," said Rowe. I was also really proud of how Maddie (Long) responded to coming off the bench tonight after starting the first two games." Long finished with six points.
Young Harris was paced by 22 points and eight rebounds from Meredith Tarver. Jenny Vernet followed with 11 points and six boards while Briana Bell joined her in double-figures with 10 points.
A key turning point in the game was a switch to the zone defense by coach Rowe and his staff in the second half. "When we went to zone we had some success on defense and our young players love to play zone because they can fly around and we were really active with it today and gave Young Harris some problems."
The Lady Flames shot 51 percent from the field and 43 percent from the beyond the arc. The Mountain Lions were limited to just 35.5 percent shooting from the field and hit just two 3-pointers. The two teams were nearly identical in the rebounding department with the Lady Flames holding a slight 35-34 advantage.
"I think we also saw just how athletic Nikki (Nicole Widenski) can be for us down in the post. She had a couple of big plays and a key block so I was happy with her effort as well. I'm really proud of our whole team tonight. Young Harris is so fast and a quality team so we certainly are happy to come up here and get this big victory. It's always easier to learn from a win as oppose to learning from a loss," concluded Rowe.
The Lady Flames (2-1) will head back to Walker Arena for the regular season home opener on Saturday night as they host Brescia University. Tip time is set for 5 p.m.