Thanks to several late free-throws the Lee men's basketball team sneaked past Truett-McConnell College, 88-84 Tuesday evening.
The Flames finished 11-of-12 from the charity stripe in the final two minutes to finish off a pesky Bears squad looking to pull the upset in front of their home crowd.
The victory moves the sixth-ranked Flames to 18-1 overall and 9-1 in the Southern States Athletic Conference (SSAC). With the loss TMC falls to 4-16 on the year and 2-9 in conference play.
"There's nothing easy about this trip.
Absolutely nothing." admitted coach Tommy Brown.
Junior Chase Dunn paced the balance scoring attack for Lee, hitting 7-of-10 from the field and 7-of-8 from the free-throw line to finish with 23 points. Senior Will Barnes added 16 markers and dished off six assists. Junior Jamorris Gaines battled through injury to register 14 points, doing most of his damage in the second half.
Senior Duran Blue added 11 points, five boards and four assists while sophomore Cory Billingsley tallied 10 markers to go along with seven rebounds. Senior Steve Bennett made it six Flames in double-figures, finishing right at his season average with 10 points.
Brown, who prides himself on defense, was disappointed his club gave up 53 second half points after limiting the Bears to 31 points in the opening half.
"You know we won, but I don't feel very good about it. The first five minutes we hit everything and the guys could've thought it was going to be easy the whole night." noted Brown. "I think we let up a little and they have some guys who can score."
Both teams shot the ball well as Lee shot 54 percent from the field (32-of-59) while canning 18-of-19 from the free-throw line. The Bears shot 52 percent (28-of-54) from the field and 58 percent from behind the arc (11-of-19). The Flames won the battle on the glass, outrebounding TMC 27-20.
Brown's club finished with 13 assists compared to just 11 turnovers. TMC had 16 assists and turned the ball over 11 times.
Truett-McConnell was led by Anthony Dorsey and Andretti Lloyd. Dorsey, who leads the NAIA in scoring (28 ppg), finished with 29 points. Lloyd tallied 26 points, doing most of his damage from long distance in converting five 3-pointers for the Georgia-based club.
The Flames will face another difficult challenge on the road as they head for Marietta, Ga. to tangle with SSAC rival Southern Polytechnic State University Saturday afternoon. Tip time is set for 4 p.m.