The North Georgia Nighthawks led for all but the first minute of the contest in handing the Lee men's basketball team a 75-57 defeat on Saturday evening.
The Flames had no answer for the Nighthawks big man, Frank Champion, who led all scorers with 30 points on 14 of 16 shooting from the field. He also went to the glass to collect eight rebounds.
Lee cut an eight-point halftime deficit down to two at 50-48 on a Beyuan Hendricks layup with 10:08 remaining but would draw no closer.
North Georgia ended the contest on a 25-9 run over the final 10 minutes.
"I thought at times we did show a lot of fight tonight. We needed more energy and effort and I really though the bench provided that spark for us, especially in the middle of the second half but we need more energy from our starters, especially on a night like tonight," said Lee head coach Bubba Smith. "We have to be able to fight through nights when we aren't shooting the ball well or when the other team is making plays and we didn't do that."
Jayce Willingham led the Flames with 16 points as he went a perfect 4 for 4 from the 3-point line. Willingham also was the Lee leader on the glass with six rebounds. Hendricks was the only other Flame to crack double figures as he posted 12 points. Jason Landman added eight points in 15 minutes off the bench but was limited with foul trouble.
"Credit North Georgia, they played with more energy, effort and more unselfish than we did tonight," lamented Smith. "We couldn't stop their big man (Champion) and I need to do a better job of making adjustments to try and limit what a team does well.
Lee shot 45.7 percent from the field but hit just 6 of 20 (30 percent) from beyond the arc just a day removed from shooting 60 percent in a win over Georgia Southwestern on Friday.
Evan Hurst added 11 points for the Nighthawks and Kody Schubert added nine points and nine assists. Champion did the heavy lifting inside for the home team to help North Georgia shoot 57.1 percent (32 of 56) from the field. The Nighthawks improved to 3-1 on the season with the victory.
The Flames (2-2) will have a little while to wait before getting the sting of this loss out of their mouth. Lee will break for Thanksgiving and will return to the hardwood on Monday, Nov. 29 as it hosts Johnson University inside Walker Arena.
"After a performance like this you want to roll the ball right back out there and put this one behind you. Unfortunately, we have a few days to think about this one before we play again. We will get back to work in practice on Monday and Tuesday before breaking for Thanksgiving. It's early in the season and we clearly have some things to work on but I know our guys are going to respond and make the adjustments needed to continue to get better," concluded Smith.