The Lady Flames passed their first road test of the Gulf South Conference (GSC) schedule with a 77-74 defeat of The University of Alabama in Huntsville Saturday afternoon. Lee improved to 9-2 and 2-1 inside the GSC, while the Chargers dropped to 1-2 in conference play and 6-3 overall.
Lee tallied 20 points in each period except the second, where they posted 17.
UAH held a 44-37 halftime lead before the Lady Flames began the comeback. The visitors chipped two points off the margin in the third period and held the Chargers to 12 fourth-period points.
Four Lady Flames finished the day with double-digit scoring. Erin Walsh and Carrie Cheeks led the way with 18 markers each. Walsh added five rebounds and three assists. Cheeks pulled down a team-high seven boards to go with three steals.
Abby Bertram contributed 16 points and Taylor Boggess threw in another 11. Lindsey Roddy and Shelby Brown recorded six points each. Maddie Long was responsible for two points, two rebounds, two assists and two steals.
Lee made 31-of-62 (.500) shot attempts, including 4-for-18 (.222) from behind the arc. UAH made 26-of-47 (.553) from the floor and were 6-for-16 (.375) from distance. UAH made 25 trips to the free throw line and made 16, while Lee toed the line 14 times and converted 11.
The Lady Flames turned 17 UAH turnovers into 23 points. The Chargers cashed 11 Lee floor mistakes into 11 points.
Both teams crashed the boards for 30 rebounds. The Lady Flames turned 10 offensive rebounds into 15 second-chance points, while UAH added eight points off six offensive boards.
Lee remains on the road and finishes the pre-Christmas schedule with a trip to Florence, Ala., to face North Alabama on Monday. The GSC contest is scheduled to tip off at 7 p.m. EST.
Thanks to a second half scoring barrage the Alabama Huntsville Chargers rallied back to defeat the Lee men’s basketball team, 91-78 on Saturday evening.
The Flames held a two-point advantage at halftime and were up 60-59 with 8:49 to play before the Chargers rattled off 32 points in the final 8:30 to blow open a tightly contested game.
Freshman Michael McGuirk led a balanced scoring attack for the Flames with 13 points and canned three triples. Point guard Parker Sudekum followed with 12 and dished off five assists and Keaton Dotson came off the bench to add 10 points in just 12 minutes of action.
Ryan Montgomery and Colton Blevins in each posted nine points and seven rebounds while Bryce Copeland nine points, three boards and a pair of assists.
Lee came out of the gate on fire and jetted out to 8-0 advantage and lead by as many as 11 on a layup by Chase Cullen with 3:45 remaining in the opening half. The Chargers chipped away however and climbed back into the contest with a 13-4 run to close the first half of play.
Chayse Elliott led the home team with 18 points and tallied five assists. Seth Swalve followed with 16 points while Kip Owens and Justin Ward each finished with 14 points. Dalton Barkley grabbed a team-high 10 rebounds to go along with nine points of his own.
“We can’t give up 57 points in the second half and have success. We got to find ways to help each other on the defensive end and make them make some tough shots, which give credit to them they made tough shots tonight,” said head coach Bubba Smith. Lenny (Acuff, UAH head coach) does a great job of getting his players in the right spot to give them open looks and we didn’t do a very good job of countering back.”
The Flames held the advantage on the glass by a 42-31 margin. The Chargers ended the game shooting 50.8 percent from the field including 58 percent in the second half. UAH canned 10 triples and were 21 of 26 from the foul. Lee shot 43.8 percent for the game and drilled 11 of 32 3-pointers (34.4 percent).
The Flames turned the ball over 17 times compared to just 10 floor mistakes for the Chargers.
“Winning on the road in this league requires a lot of toughness and I didn’t think we showed enough mental toughness tonight and let the game get away from us in the second half. We need to make adjustments and stay focused for 40 minutes and we will correct that as we head into North Alabama,” concluded Smith.
The loss drops the Flames to 7-3 overall and 2-1 in the Gulf South Conference. The win improves the Chargers to 7-3 on the season and gives them their first league victory after dropping their first two games.
Lee will look to regroup quickly as it travels to North Alabama for a 9 p.m. tip on Monday night before heading into Christmas Break.