Holding an opponent under 60 points for the fifth straight game resulted in an impressive five consecutive wins for the Lee University women’s basketball team as they handed the University of West Florida a 67-52 defeat on Saturday afternoon inside Walker Arena.
The surging Lady Flames improved to 13-4 in GSC play and 19-4 overall. The visiting Argonauts dropped to 10-6, 14-8. Lee will enjoy some off time before returning to action on Saturday (Feb. 15) when they travel to Nashville and face Trevecca Nazarene University.
The Lady Flames trailed 16-14 at the end of the first quarter.
The defense went to work in the second frame and held West Florida to eight points. At the same time Lee was putting 15 markers on the board and claiming a 29-24 advantage at the halftime break.
The lead continued to slowly grow in the third period as the Lady Flames held the Argonauts to 13 points and tallied 16 points to lead 45-37 at the third stop. The final period belonged to Lee as they outscored West Florida 22-15 in posting the key victory.
While the defense was standing tall, Haylee Johnson was continuing her outstanding play. She finished with 29 points, making 8-of-15 shots overall and 12-of-14 important free throws. Johnson also led her team in assists with eight and rebounds with seven.
Mia Hurst came up with some big plays on the offensive end. She hit three triples and tallied 15 points overall. When the Lady Flames started to pull away from the Argonauts, it was Bailey Burgess who connected on two big 3-pointers. She added one other shot from beyond the arc and tallied nine points.
Anna Muhonen had six rebounds as Lee won the battle of the boards 38-29. The defense forced the Argonauts into 20 floor mistakes and Kara Williams joined Johnson with three steals apiece. The Lady Flames outscored West Florida 26-20 in points in the paint and allowed the visitors only six offensive rebounds. Lee shot 41% from the field (22-of-54) and made 8-of-25 3-point attempts (32%). They marched to the line 18 times and made 15.
Bella Green paced West Florida in scoring with 13 points. Haidyn Pitsch and Delaney Trushel pitched in with 10 markers each. The Argonauts shot 35% from the field (18-of-51) and made 4-of-17 triples (24%) and hit 12-of-16 free throws.
In the men's game, West Florida scored the first six points of the game and never looked back as they defeated the Lee University 84-71 on Saturday afternoon. After being up one at halftime, the Argos outscored the Flames 52-40 in the second half to earn the win. Lee fell to 9-12 overall and 5-12 in Gulf South Conference action, while UWF improved to 6-16 and 5-11.
Poor shooting hurt the Flames early in the game. Lee started the game going just 2-for-14 from the floor. Most of the early points for the Flames came from the free throw line. UWF jumped out to a 16-6 lead before the Flames went on their own run. Lee had a 8-0 run that was capped off by a Tim Vaughn three-point shot. The long-range bucket was the first of the game for the Flames and it came with 7:55 left in the half.
Lee kept chipping away at the lead and eventually tied it at 29. UWF had an answer and after another tie, the Argos led 32-31 at the halftime break.
The early part of the second half was all Argos. They found their way to the free throw line and hit some big shots and they pushed the one point lead out to 13 at 52-39. The Flames tried to respond, but UWF kept making shots and eventually pushed it all the way out to a 72-47 lead. The Flames didn’t go away as they responded with their own 14-1 run, but it was too little to late as UWF won 84-71.
UWF did most of their damage at the free throw line as they were 34-for-49 in the win from the charity stripe. Lee was 18-of-24 from the free throw spot. Lee made the exact same amount of field goals as UWF did with 23.
Jamarcus Wilkins led the Flames with 14 points and seven rebounds while Tylon Chatman had 13. Ben Ritger added a career high 11 points.
The Flames out rebounded the Argos 42-30 but committed six more turnovers in the loss.
The Flames will return to action next Saturday for the start of a three-game road trip. They will take on Trevecca Nazarene University in Nashville at 5 PM on February 15