A third quarter letdown that saw the Lee women's basketball team outscored by host West Florida 19-6, resulted in the Lady Argonauts building a 21-point lead (60-39) with 7:10 remaining in the contest. The Lady Flames battled back in the final seven minutes but it was not nearly enough in the 71-61 loss.
"We were thoroughly outplayed and outcoached today," said a disappointed Lee coach Marty Rowe after his team dropped to 6-3 while West Florida improved to 3-4. "No excuses, we have got to find a better sense of urgency as a group or this is going to be a continual theme for this team."
Rowe added, "Our consistency of effort has to get better but the blame falls squarely on me.
I have to figure out how to get us over the Saturday lull we seem to have." The Lee coach was pointing directly at last weekend's games with Valdosta State. The Lady Flames won the opener in convincing fashion but fell to VSU on Saturday.
Veteran player Danielle Norquest proved to be a game-changer for the Argos. She finished with 27 points, making 9-of-13 shots from the field, 3-of-6 triples, 6-of-7 free throws and capped off the day with a double-double 13 rebounds, plus coming up with five steals. Fanny Hulmi was the only other West Florida player in double-digit scoring (16 points). However, Charlotte Elmore and Gabby Brown added nine markers apiece.
Haley Schubert battled to help keep the Lady Flames in the contest. In fact deep into the fourth quarter, Lee was able to trim the large lead down to only four points with full-court pressure. Schubert finished with 20 points and tied teammate Camryn Grant with a team-leading eight rebounds. Grant also was the only other Lee player in double figures (12). Halle Hughes and Hannah Garrett totaled nine points apiece. Only six Lady Flames got into the scoring act.
West Florida shot a solid 51% from the field while Lee canned 40% of its attempts. The Lady Argos stepped out behind the arc to hit 40% (10-of-25 triples) and helped Lee climb back into the game by making 13-of-21 charity tosses. The Lady Flames were only able to convert six 3-pointers in 20 attempts (30%). They also struggled at the charity stripe, making 13-of-21. Lee won the rebounding battle 33-29 and turned the basketball over 16 times while West Florida committed 14 floor mistakes.
Lee will take a week off before returning to Walker Arena on Feb. 2nd when they host Auburn Montgomery in a single game. They will turn right around and host Shorter on Feb. 5th and 6th.