For the second straight game, a Lee University men’s basketball player had a career nigh in leading the Flames to a Gulf South Conference victory. On Monday night it was Noah Boler-Kyle who had a career best 32 points and rebounds (13) to lead Lee to a 86-73 victory over the University of West Florida. With the win, the Flames improved to 4-0 overall and 2-0 in GSC play.
After scoring four points in the first half on 2-for-6 shooting, Boler-Kyle was unstoppable in the second half.
He scored 28 points while being a perfect 12-for-12 from the field with four dunks and two three-point shots. He set the tone for the Flames who as a team was 21-33 from the field for 63%.
The Flames started the game strong defensively not allowing UWF to score for the first 3:50 of the contest. The Argos settled in hover and went on a short run and tied the game at 12-12. The last ten minutes of the first half, the two teams traded the lead eight times and tied it twice. Lee never led by more than seven points and UWF led by only two.
Boler-Kyle got the fast start to the second half for the Flames scoring the first six points and pushed the Lee lead out to 48-34 and the Flames never looked back. The lead grew to as many as 20 points before ending with an 86-73 victory.
Lee shot exactly 50% in the contest shooting 35-for-70. The Flames had 50 points in the paint and had 23 assists in the win. J.J. Barnes added 12 points and Willie Walton had 11. Nine different Flames scored in the victory. Tautvydas Kuptas had 18 points to lead the Argos while Channick Nkoma had 14.
The Flames will hit the road for the first time this season as they will take on the University of Montevallo in Montevallo, Ala. on Sunday, December 3 at 5 PM.
Coach Bubba Smith’s Thoughts:
“When Noah plays with a motor, he is as good as any big in our league. When any player gets going their confidence rises and every time Noah touched it tonight the rim got bigger and bigger for him.”
“When things are well it can be easy to feed off each other. We know the GSC is a grueling test and we will see how we grow and get better as we go on the road for the first time this week. There will be nights when our offense isn’t as good and we have to rely on our defense to get stops.”