A last second 3-pointer from Kentrell Evans careered off the back of the iron as the Lee men's basketball team suffered its third straight close loss to start the 2018 season, falling 77-74 to North Georgia on Wednesday evening inside Walker Arena.
The Nighthawks split a pair foul shots with just six seconds remaining to keep the door open for the Flames. Evans got off a clean look at the tying 3-ball but came up empty.
Colton Blevins led the way for the home team with 22 points.
Blevins was 9 of 17 from the field and grabbed seven rebounds while dishing off three assists. Cody Jones added 15 and seven boards while Evans had 13 points and six rebounds while going a perfect 5 of 5 from the field.
North Georgia, a member of the Peach Belt Conference, was paced by 24 points from Shawn Hopkins. Jack Howard added 17 while big man Lanre Olatunji had 11 points and two blocks.
Lee appeared poised to pull away in the second half as it stretched its lead to six with 9:57 left. From there however the Nighthawks responded with 8-2 run capped off by a four-point play from Shawn Hopkins with 7:08 remaining and never looked back. UNG stretched the lead to seven, its biggest margin of the game, with 1:57 left before the Flames battled back to make things interesting in the final moments.
"We ran into some similar issues tonight that we had over the weekend. I thought we competed better tonight and our energy was good but we have to learn how to finish close games," said head coach Bubba Smith. "We played solid defense, particularly in the first half but once again we were killed on the offensive glass and we fouled too much, which got us into some rotation problems as well."
Lee trailed the back and forth affair, 39-37 at halftime led by a monster first half from Blevins, a junior forward from Jamestown, Tenn., who poured in 16 points to keep his club in the contest.
"We talked about this week that we need to get Colton the basketball," said Smith. "He is a really skilled post player and we are better when he touches the ball. I think he's going to be a big presence in the Gulf South Conference this year."
After shooting a red hot 56.5 percent from the field in the opening half the Flames cooled to 41.2 percent in the second half. Lee was 27 of 57 (47.4 percent) for the game and 6 of 19 (31.6 percent) from the 3-point line.
The Nighthawks went to the line 26 times but cashed in just 14. The Georgia club hit 44.3 percent (27 of 61) from the field and 34.6 percent from the 3-point line (9 of 26). The Flames only went to the foul stripe 15 times but nailed 14 (93.3 percent).
The Flames held a 39 to 34 advantage on the glass but committed 15 turnovers to just 10 for the visitors. The Nighthawks turned the turnovers into 15 points while Lee had just seven off UNG's mistakes.
Lee drops to 0-3 on the season while the Nighthawks improve to 2-1 on the young season.
The Flames will look to get into the win column as they continue their six-game home stand to open up the season on Saturday as they welcome Brescia to town for a 4 p.m. matinee.