Beyuan Hendricks 11 points and nine rebounds in Thursday's win over the Hawks.
Quay Kennedy scored a season-high 24 points, 22 of which came in the second half as and the Lee men's basketball team rolled past rival Shorter, 83-65 on Thursday evening.
The Flames were slow out of the gate and found themselves down five with 5:49 to play in the first half before closing on a 14-4 run to take a 33-28 advantage into the intermission. The two teams traded punches for the first eight minutes of the second half before the Flames pulled away with a 32-16 run over the final 12 minutes to close out the road win.
Kennedy has now scored 20-plus points in each of the last three games for the Flames.
The senior forward also added six rebounds. Beyuan Hendricks tallied 11 points, nine rebounds, two assists and two steals. Makhi McGuire scored 11 off the bench and grabbed six rebounds. Jayce Willingham rounded out the double-figure scoring for the Flames with 10 points.
After shooting just 38 percent in the first half the Flames improved to 51 percent in the second half and finished the game connecting on 45 percent from the field. Lee hit 8 of 25 from three and 19 of 26 from the foul line. Kennedy was a perfect a 9 of 9 from the charity stripe.
"Tonight, wasn't a perfect night but I was proud of how our guys responded out of the half. It was a physical game and I thought we responded with a different level of toughness and focus down the stretch," said Lee head coach Bubba Smith.
Ricky Knight Jr. led the Hawks with 15 points and Mark Wilcox Jr. delivered a double-double with 14 points and 10 rebounds.
The Lee defense made things tough on Shorter the entire night. The Hawks shot just 39 percent for the game, hit just three from beyond the arc and struggled at the line to the tune of 20 for 32.
"Our defensive effort was really good in the second half which led to some easier points for us," added Smith. "I also thought our bench was really good again tonight. We weathered some foul trouble in the first half and our bench continues to be huge lift for our team."
Lee held a 32-17 advantage in bench scoring while cashing in 27 points off of 17 Shorter turnovers.
The win moves the Flames to 8-5 overall and 4-3 in the GSC. Lee rebounded from a tough road loss at AUM on Sunday coming out of the Christmas break. Shorter falls to 3-9 on the year and are still searching for its first conference win after dipping to 0-7.
The Flames are 9-1 over the last 10 matchups with Hawks. Shorter snapped a seven-game losing streak to Lee with a 78-71 win last season.
Lee will return home on Saturday to battle a red-hot West Alabama squad. The Tigers come into the game riding a six-game winning streak and are 12-2 overall and 5-1 in the GSC. Opening tip is set for 2 p.m. in Walker Arena.