Despite a furious second half comeback the Lee men's basketball team came up just short in Friday's season opener, falling to Embry Riddle 74-72 from Walker Arena on night one of the Gulf South/Sunshine State Challenge.
The Flames trailed by as many as 13 with just 7:35 remaining in the second half before going on a 17-6 run to pull within two at 68-66 with 2:20 remaining.
Senior guard Cody Jones buried a three to make it just one-point Eagles lead at 70-69 with 1 minute remaining to bring the home crowd to their feet.
The Flames would get a stop and had several close put back opportunities in the paint by Ryan Montgomery with 22 seconds left but failed to convert, eventually losing the ball out of bounds.
From there the Eagles salted away the game with four foul shots.
"Cody did what seniors do he made some big shots and settled down in the second half and Duke gave us a big lift off the bench," noted head coach Bubba Smith.
Jones led the way with 19 points and canned four triples. Sophomore Michael McGuirk got to the foul line and converted 10 of 13 and finished with 18 points while red-shirt freshman Kentrell "Duke" Evans scored 10 of the bench.
"We played a good basketball team and it's good to play teams like this early in the season. In the first half I think we let them control the game too much," admitted Smith. "We gave up a lot of offensive rebounds but we corrected those things up in the second half and flipped the rebounding margin and that made a big difference."
Nashad Mackey nailed 5 of 6 from beyond the arc to pace Embry-Riddle with 26 points and 10 rebounds. Speedy guard Alston Jones added 19 points while big man Luka Majstorovic registered 13 points.
The Flames held a 39-35 advantage on the glass. Lee committed 11 turnovers while forcing the Eagles into 12 floor mistakes. To showcase just how even the contest was, both teams were 23-57 from the field (40.4 percent). The Flames were 8 of 18 (44.4 percent) from the 3-point line while the Eagles were 9 of 20 for 45 percent.
"I just think there is a lot of possessions we'd like to have back tonight. In games like this, which had a tough conference battle feel to it you really have to pay close attention to detail and the scouting report and know exactly what you have to do or the other team will make you pay," said Smith. "We've got to do a better job of playing without the foul. Not having Colton out there for much of the game was tough but I think the exciting part about a game like this is we know we can play a lot better and left some chances out there that hopefully we can clean up tomorrow."
The Eagles improve to 3-1 on the year and will take on West Georgia in the opener tomorrow from Walker Arena at 2 p.m.
The Flames will get right back to work as they host Palm Beach Atlantic at 4 p.m. to close out the GSC/SSC Challenge.
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