Sparked by solid defense and excellent team play, the Lee women’s basketball team jumped out to a 21-9 lead at the end of the first quarter and led 43-25 halfway point in posting a 76-45 victory over Shorter University on Thursday evening inside Walker Arena.
The win improved the GSC leading Lady Flames to 19-2 in league play and 21-4 overall. Lee returns to action on Saturday afternoon, traveling to Carrollton, Ga. and facing West Georgia in a GSC battle slated for a 2 p.m. tip. The Lady Flames will return next Thursday for a showdown against Union University before closing out the regular season against Christian Brothers.
Four players scored in double figures in the win over the Lady Hawks.
Haylee Johnson finished with a career high 18 points to lead the way. She made 7-of-12 shots overall and converted 4-of-7 3-pointers. Mallory Hampton filled up the stat line with 13 points, eight assists, and four steals. She was 3-of-4 from long range and 5-of-9 overall.
Macy Woodworth had a double-double, 10 points and 11 rebounds. Addison Smith enjoyed a perfect shooting night, 4-of-4 overall and 2-of-2 3-pointers. Hannah Garrett added nine points and Mia Hurst finished with eight points and four rebounds. Haley Schubert missed her second straight game due to concussion protocol. Lee used all 11 players that were dressed out for the contest and nine of those players got at least 13 minutes of playing time.
“It was good to see multiple people step up and give us good minutes tonight,” commented head Coach Marty Rowe. “This time of year you have to take advantage of opportunities to get better and that has been this team’s mentality all season. We need to keep working and continue to get better down the stretch.”
The Lady Flames shot 48% from the field (29-of-61). They hit 13-of-34 triples (38%) and converted 5-of-8 free throws. While Lee had 23 assists to just 10 turnovers, the defense forced Shorter into 21 floor mistakes and converted the mistakes into 23 points.
The Lady Hawks shot 35% from the field (18-of-53) and attempted 10 3-pointers and made two. They also were awarded nine charity tosses and canned seven. Tiara Lewis had a double-double, 16 points and 10 rebounds to lead the Shorter scoring. Sarah Wisniowski added 10 points. Lee won the rebounding battle 33-32.