Valdosta State led for almost 34 minutes of Saturday afternoon's 40-minute hoop contest inside Walker Arena. On the other hand, the Lee women in a complete turnaround, had problems ever garnered control in dropping a 63-57 contest to the Lady Blazers. The victory moves 8th-ranked Valdosta State to 8-1 while the 16th-ranked Lady Flames fall to 5-2.
"We just simply got out-worked, out-played and out-coached today," allowed Lee head coach Marty Rowe. "Valdosta was a better team than us today and deserves a ton of credit for playing with more energy than we did."
In sharp contrast to Lee's Friday victory, the visitors controlled almost every aspect of the game.
The Lady Blazers outrebounded the Lady Flames 40-29 and were guilty of only 14 turnovers while Lee committed 17. At the same time the Valdosta shot 43% from the field (20-of-47) and cashed in at the charity stripe canning 20-of-25 attempts. Lee managed just 33% from the field (19-of-57) but did step behind the arc to convert 10-of-24 attempts (42%). Lee was awarded only 11 free throws and made nine.
Valdosta held its biggest lead of the game, 10 points, with less than a minute remaining in the third period. The Lady Flames were outscored 22-21 in the high-scoring quarter and came within striking distance by outscoring the Lady Blazers 13-12 in the final frame.
Lee cut the lead to just two points with the help of a pair of 3-pointers by Halle Hughes but key turnovers in the final 1:30 allowed the Lady Blazers the opportunity to salvage the win.
Again it was Kayla Bonilla who led the charge for Valdosta with 19 points. She also converted 9-of-11 freebies. However, this time the gifted senior had plenty of help. Jirah Ards contributed 13 points. Kwajelin Farrar produced a double-double with 11 points and 12 rebounds. But a huge plus for the Lady Blazers came from 6-foot-5 Abby Rouse who pitched in with nine points and eight rebounds.
The Lady Blazer defense held Lee's leading scorer Haley Schubert to 11 points and Hannah Garrett knocked down a pair of triples to finish with 13 markers. Julia Duncan followed with 10 points and Camryn Grant paced Lee in rebounding with seven and tallied eight points.
The Lady Flames will return to action on the road at West Florida next Friday and Saturday. "We have a lot of work to do as a group and need to have a great week of practice preparing for West Florida," concluded Coach Rowe.