Haylee Johnson scored nine straight points in the third quarter and finished the game with a career-high 21 points in leading Lee University to a 62-46 victory over Bethel University inside Walker Arena on Saturday afternoon. It marked the ninth straight victory for the Lady Flames who improved to 9-2 while Bethel played the contest as an exhibition.
Bethel cut the Lee lead to only three points in the third period before Johnson exploded for her nine points and gave the Lady Flames a 45-34 lead that the visitors were never able to recover from.
The upper hand continued to grow in the final period before Coach Marty Rowe was able to pull his starters off the floor.
Johnson made 7-of-10 shots from the field, including 2-of-2 triples and 5-of-7 free throws in her best offensive outing of the year. Addison Smith turned in a solid performance, including 4-of-6 overall shooting, a pair of 3-pointers and 3-of-4 free throws. She finished with 13 points and a team-leading four rebounds. Mallory Hampton got into early foul trouble and played just 20 minutes. She finished with 12 points and converted 7-of-8 free throws. Haley Cameron came off the bench and tallied nine points and dished off three assists.
The Lady Flames shot 38% from the field (20-of-53) and only 20% from beyond the arc (5-of-25). They marched to the charity stripe 23 times and made 17. The defense held the Lady Wildcats to only 27% shooting (12-of-44) and 25% from 3-point range (5-of-20). In the contest that featured 52 fouls, Bethel was awarded 30 and made 17.
Madison Hart was the only Lady Wildcat in double figures with 11 points. She was also the team’s leading rebounder with six. Kayla Taylor added seven points and five rebounds as the Lady Wildcats outrebounded the Lady Flames 38-25. The Lee defense forced Bethel into 24 turnovers and committed just nine floor mistakes. Lee turned 21 of the Lady Wildcats turnovers into points.
The Lady Flames will return to the practice floor on Sunday before traveling to Mississippi on Monday and open GSC play against Mississippi College on Tuesday (6:30 PM). The long road trip will continue on Thursday when they face another conference challenge at Delta State (6:30 PM).
Coach Marty Rowe’s thoughts:
“We beat a really good team today that is extremely well coached. After a long break, it is exactly what we needed.
“The key for our team is to find ways to win games. I thought we scraped out enough plays down the stretch to do that.
“We have to rebound better. Getting outrebounded by 13 will get us beat next week in Mississippi. It is something that we will watch on film and make a point of emphasis in practice the next two days.”