–A career night from Willie Walton propelled the Lee University men’s basketball team past Lindsey Wilson College 84-68 on Wednesday evening. Walton had a career high in points and rebounds with 20 and 10 respectively. It was the first career double-double for Walton has he was 7-for-13 from the floor. With the win Lee improved to 2-0 while the Blue Raiders counted the game as an exhibition.
The Flames started the game with a bang with an alley-oop from Giancarlo Valdez to Noah Boler-Kyle.
Lee focused on shots close to the rim early on as the first ten points came from within five feet. Neither team shot the ball well from long range the entire first half as Lee was 3-for-11 from outside while Lindsey Wilson was 2-for-11.
Both team had short stints where they could not score as the defenses were forcing bad shots. Despite the struggling offenses, Willie Walton paced the Flames with 11 points in the first half. He had three offense rebounds in the first half.
Lindsey Wilson managed to lead by as many as seven points in the first half before Lee ended the half with a big run. Walton hit a three with 18 seconds left in the half, then the Flames got a steal and Tylon Chatman hit a shot from mid court as the clock expired to give Lee the 39-34 lead at the halftime break.
Lee continued to build the lead in the second hand pushed it out to a 54-43 lead with 14:28 to go in the contest. However, the Blue Raiders responded and held the Flames scoreless for over four and half minutes and cut the gap to 54-50.
The Blue Raiders couldn’t get any closer as Marlon Smith and Walton led the charge and pushed the lead back out to 11 points. After that the Blue Raiders could not get any closer than seven points. In the last six minutes of the contest, LWC only had one field goal as lead extended the lead back out to 18 points to win 84-68.
Lee was 16-for-17 from the free throw line in the win but was only 6-of-19 from the three-point arc. 48 of the 68 points came in the paint for the Flames. Walton was one of three players in double figures for the Flames with Smith getting 14 and Valdez scoring 15. Daviel Jackson had 20 points for the Blue Raiders and Julian Cunningham had 19 points.
The Flames will continue the homestand with a match against Lane College on Monday, November 18 at 8:30 PM
Coach Bubba Smith’s Thoughts:
“Tonight’s performance from Willie was a great testament to him and to our team. We didn’t run a single play for him or an action to get him a shot. All those things he did was self-effort and activity. Our offense is designed to create chances like that through effort.
We defended the three really well tonight. Sometimes that exposes you to shots in the paint but our attention to detail on that stuff was really good.”