Bubba Smith said his official home opener as head coach of the Lee men’s basketball team was not a thing of beauty but he quickly replied, “We are glad to get the first win that counts here at home out of the way. We are happy with the win but we are not content with how we played.”
The Flames led from start to finish but could never really put a pesky Brescia University team away. They put 46 points on the board in the first half and 47 in the second 20 minutes to post a 93-77 victory in Walker Arena on Saturday evening.
“One thing that you’ll hear a lot from me is the word consistency,” noted Smith.
“We played well in spurts tonight but we have to be more defensively consistent if we are going to win night in and night out in our league. Some of that is a mental toughness issue and some of that is just getting ourselves in better shape.”
Lee senior Keevin Tyus tallied 18 of his 30 points in the second half to pace the win. He completed a double-double with 10 rebounds. “I thought we did a good job of getting Keevin the ball in good spaces and that was there for us most of the night. We have good shooters and we hit some shots which allowed that spacing to be there,” pointed out the Lee coach.
“I’m overall pleased with the effort and the fact that we continue to share the ball well, but we just need to be more consistent on the defensive end,” he added.
The Flames had five players hit double-figure scoring. Rico Overall and Jervon Johnson finished with 13 points apiece. Overall collected eight rebounds and dished off eight assists. Johnson knocked down three 3-pointers. Levi Woods also had three treys which helped contribute to his 12 points, while Cody Farley finished with 10 markers.
Lee shot 51 percent from the field making 31-of-71 attempts. The Flames put up 29 3-pointers and hit 10 (35 percent). They were guilty of just 12 floor mistakes while Brescia turned the basketball over 16 times. Lee out-rebounded the visitors 43-32.
The Bearcats managed to keep the contest fairly close by hitting 15-of-28 shots (46 percent) from behind the arc. Trey Howard converted three treys and finished with 20 points. Jordan Cooper-Livers chipped in with 15 points and also nailed three treys. Dillon Geralds pulled down 11 rebounds to go along with seven points.
The Flames will take a short break for the Thanksgiving holidays before departing for Palm Beach, Florida. They will face host Palm Beach Atlantic on Saturday at 4 p.m. and then be pitted against Lynn University (Fla.) in the crossover game on Sunday at 2 p.m.