West Alabama’s LaJuan Hardy popped open and buried a 3-pointer at the horn to hand the Lee men’s basketball team a gut-wrenching, 70-68 defeat on Saturday afternoon inside Walker Arena.
The Flames grabbed a 68-67 lead with just eight seconds remaining as Ryan Montgomery streaked down the court and scored with a left-handed layup to bring the home crowd to its feet. Prior to the Montgomery bucket the Flames gave up an offensive rebound and a put back after two missed free-throws to give West Alabama a 67-66 advantage.
The joy was short-lived however as Hardy drilled the game-winner after the Tigers initially appeared to be stalled by the Flames zone defense.
Hardy played the full forty minutes and scored a game-high 27 points.
“Obviously this one stings a bit and the focus will be on the last possession but I thought we were just way too loose with the ball in the final minutes of the game and gave them way too many scoring chances because of turnovers,” lamented Lee head coach Bubba Smith. “We executed well offensively when we held on to the basketball. Colton (Blevins) and Ryan got a lot of high-percentage looks and we were able to get Michael (McGuirk) going early in the game but this one centers on turnovers for us and we have to clean that up.”
Blevins finished with 23 points and seven rebounds for the Flames. Montgomery followed with 18 points and the two juniors combined to shoot 14 for 22 from the field. For the game the Flames shot 56.1 p0ercent (23 of 41) and were 8 of 17 (47.1 percent) from beyond the arc. McGuirk gave Lee a big lift early in the contest and finished with 13 points.
West Alabama forced the Flames into 20 costly turnovers and scored 22 points off those mistakes. Deandre Harper added 14 points while Ricky Dunnaway chipped in 12. West Alabama finished shooting 47.2 percent from the field and connected on 40.9 percent from the 3-point line.
Lee held a 28-20 advantage on the glass but West Alabama finished with 12 more shot attempts in the game.
The Flames fall to 10-8 overall and are now 7-3 in the GSC. The Tigers improve to 12-5 and are 7-3 in the GSC after knocking off both the Flames and UAH (Thursday) on last second shots.
Coach Smith’s team will now head on the road for a two-game trip with stops to Mississippi College and Delta State next Thursday and Saturday. Lee is 5-0 this season away from Walker Arena.
“I think part of our success on the road is that your backs up against the wall and it forces you to really focus in,” added Smith. “This one stings but are guys have proven over and over again this season that they are a resilient group and I expect that to continue in Mississippi next week.”