Lee Basketball Teams Fall To West Georgia

  • Saturday, February 13, 2016


When the Lee men's basketball team looks back at its 2015-16 season, losses to Christian Brothers and Saturday's heartbreaker to West Georgia will always haunt a group of battling athletes.

On January 23, Christian Brothers canned a 3-point shot right before the final buzzer sounded to hand the Flames a crushing defeat. On Saturday afternoon, West Georgia's Willie Evans drilled a fade-away trey with the final seconds ticking away to give the Wolves a gut-wrenching 71-68 win over Lee.

"I've never seen a team fight so hard and have this many disappointing losses," said coach Tommy Brown as he struggled to hold back his pain.

"West Georgia is a tremendously talented team and with plenty of depth but I'm really proud of our guys. They hung in there and had a chance to win until that 3-point shot. It was even tougher than the shot Christian Brothers made to beat us."

The Wolves led 35-33 at halftime and increased the margin to nine points midway of the second half. The Flames continued to battle back and owned a one-point lead before Zach Tauilien knocked down a triple to put the Wolves back on top with just over 1:30 remaining. Shannon Fowler converted two free-throws in four attempts to push the margin back to two points.

Chase Cullen went to the line and tied the thriller with some 23 seconds remaining. The Wolves called a timeout and went to work against Lee's defense. Finally, the ball went to Evans who drilled the dagger.

Keevin Tyus made tough shot after tough shot against a sagging West Georgia defense and finished with a game-high 21 points and eight rebounds. Cullen followed with 15 points and Levi Woods finished with nine. Rantavious Gilbert brought the Lee fans to their feet several times in the closing minutes and finished with five blocks, giving him a nation-leading 83 blocks for the year.

West Georgia constantly went inside to Fowler, who had a double-double, 18 points and 10 rebounds. Tauilien made four 3-pointers and racked up 14 points, while Steph Branch came away with 12 points and Marcus Dortch contributed 10 markers. Evans, who hit the game-winner, tallied seven points.

Again the Flames shot well from the field, making 48 percent of their attempts. However, they struggled from 3-point range, making just 3-of-13. They were awarded only 11 free throws in the rugged contest and made nine. On the other hand, the Wolves shot better from 3-point range than they did from the field, making 6-of-14 treys and shooting 42 percent from the floor. Lee had 14 turnovers compared to 10 for the winners. The Flames out-rebounded the taller Wolves 36-35.

The Flames completed their GSC games in Walker Arena. They will close out the GSC schedule with road games at Mississippi College, Delta State and Shorter before returning home to host Hiwassee College on February 23. 

In the women's game, West Georgia's D'Asia Cain drilled a 3-point basketball from the corner at the buzzer to send the Wolves past the Lee Lady Flames, 77-76.

Lee's Haris Price split a pair of free throws prior to the last second shot to give the Lady Flames a brief 76-74 lead. Price finished with 19 points and three assists.

The battle between the Gulf South Conference's top scorers did not disappoint. Lee's Erin Walsh is second in the league and scored 25 points on 9 of 18 shooting from the field. The Wolves' Katrina Littlepage is the top point producer in the conference and she added to that mark with 37 points. Littlepage was 4 of 6 from three-point land and 13 of 14 from the foul line.

 "I thought we took a step forward today and played with more purpose, emotion and energy but we still didn't defend with urgency and missed some opportunities late at the foul line," said head coach Marty Rowe after the contest.

Lee raced out to an 18-7 lead in the first period but the Wolves battled back to cut the lead to nine at the halftime break. The two clubs jostled back and forth in the third period before West Georgia used a late fourth quarter run to pull out the victory.

Playing without starting post player Carrie Cheeks for the second straight game the Lady Flames relied on Shelby Brown who pitched in 10 points and added nine rebounds and Christina Johnson who finished with six points and 10 rebounds.

Terrianna Cave added 14 points for West Georgia while Cain scored 14 and grabbed eight boards.

The Wolves did most of their damage from the free-throw line (17 of 20) and from beyond the arc (17 of 20). Lee did convert eight triples and shot 44.6 percent from the field in the contest (29 of 65).

"We gave up 53 points in the second half and that's just bad defense," added Rowe. "We were willing to give up the 3-point shot because they came in not shooting well from there but we needed to adjust once they started hitting those shots. If they shot the ball like that the whole year they would beat anybody in the country."

Lee now falls to 16-8 overall and 13-6 in the GSC. This marks the first time all year the Lady Flames have dropped consecutive games. Lee was 6-0 prior to tonight falling loses.

The Wolves keep their playoff hopes alive and are now 6-13 in conference play and 6-19 overall. West Georgia 

The Lady Flames will now head on the road where they are 6-2 in conference play. Lee battles Mississippi College on Thursday at 6:30 p.m. before taking on Delta State on Saturday at 3 p.m.

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