Lee Men Win Big Over Shorter 91-70

  • Saturday, January 13, 2018
The Lee men's basketball team started fast in front of a jam packed and boisterous Walker Arena crowd and never looked back in trouncing rival Shorter University, 91-70 on Saturday evening.

Senior Levi Woods helped spark the Flames early with 11 of his 13 points coming in the first half as Lee opened up a  commanding, 52-26 advantage at halftime.

Freshman Michael McGuirk and Jason Landman led the way with 15 points each. Ryan Montgomery added 10 points and Cody Jones came off the bench to nail a two 3-pointers and finished with nine points and four assists.

"Our team really fed off the crowd tonight, they were the sixth man for us and I think that really helped us open up the big lead and really set the tone for the entire night," noted head coach Bubba Smith.
"Levi Woods gave us a great spark in the early going with some big shots to really help us get off to a good start but overall it was just a  nice team win and we got to rest some guys and got to get guys some quality minutes off the bench so I was proud of our performance."

The Lee defense smothered the Hawks all night long, showcasing why it leads the Gulf South Conference in defensive field goal percentage. The Flames limited Shorter to just 38.6 percent shooting from the field while pouring in a sizzling 60 percent of their own attempts. Lee finished the contest canning 7 of 16 from beyond the arc (43.8 percent). 

Coach Smith's squad was nearly perfect in the opening half, shooting 70 percent from the field (21 of 30) while connecting on all five of their 3-point attempts.

"We were ready to come out and compete hard and give it everything we had tonight in front a huge crowd and that was the main contributor to our defensive intensity tonight," said Landman.

The Hawks leading scorer coming in, Josh Burnett, was stymied by the aggressive defense of senior Bryce Copeland and the Flames all night long. Burnett, who averages 17.3 ppg, was held to just four on the night. Drew Thomas paced the visitors with 21 points as he drained five triples in the contest. Amonte Potter followed with 19 points and Jacob Newman rounded out the double-figure scoring with 10.

The Flames dominated in the paint outscoring Shorter, 52-24 while holding a 39-27 advantage on the glass.

Colton Blevins finished with eight points in 13 minutes of work for the Flames while Keaton Dotson came in to add seven points and six rebounds in the second half.

The win snaps a brief two game slide for the Flames as they improve to 10-6 and 5-4 in league play. The loss drops the scuffling Hawks to 2-15 and 2-7 in the GSC.

Lee continues its three-game home stand next week as it welcomes Delta State to town on Thursday for an 8 p.m. tip off. The Flames will test Mississippi College a week from today at 4 p.m. before heading on the road for a crucial four-game swing to Christian Brothers, Union, West Florida and Valdosta State

 
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