Lee University's Mia Hurst brings the ball up court in Saturday's loss to Union University at the South Regionals.
photo by Lee Athletics Communications
It was a tough shooting night for the Lee University women’s basketball team as they fell to Union University 75-53 in the second round of the NCAA tournament on Saturday evening. Lee shot 27% from the floor while Union shot 50% in the win. In the elimination game, Lee never led as Union led by as many as 35 points in the win.
Union moves on to south regional final against Nova Southeastern University on Monday evening while the Lady Flames season came to an end with a record of 25-7.
The two teams traded buckets early on with Union holding an 10-8 advantage. After the first media timeout went on a 10-3 run to end the period. Lee held Union scoreless for the first five minutes of the second quarter but couldn’t get any closer than five points. Union finally responded with a 6-0 run and led 37-23 at the halftime intermission.
The third quarter belonged to Union. They outscored Lee 29-12 in the period. The Lady Bulldogs made ten field goals with four of them coming from long range. Lee was 4-of-17 in the third quarter. Union led it 66-35 after three quarters of play. Lee closed the gap in the fourth quarter as they outscored Union 18-9 to make it a 22 point deficit at the end of the game.
Union was 28-of-56 from the floor including 11-of-34 from the three-point arc. Lee, on the other had was 15-of-55 for 27%. Union outscored Lee in the paint 30-16 and had 25 points off of Lee turnovers.
Mallory Hampton ended the game with six points on 2-of-17 shooting. Mia Hurst had a game high 10 points for Lee. Haylee Johnson, Kara Williams, and Addison Smith all had six points as well.
Coach Marty Rowe’s Thoughts:
“You have to give Union credit. They outplayed us in every phase of the game tonight. Every long rebound and bounce seemed to go their way in the first half. Every easy shot we seemed to have missed tonight and that is where Union gets you is those short runs.
I have never had a team quite like this one. We had all 15 players comeback this year. Where else in the country can you say that happened. They came together and said we will work and be better this year than last year. There is a lot to be said for believing in your teammates and this team believed in themselves more than any team I have ever had. There were plenty of leaders in the locker room. This loss tonight will not define who this team is. Not the way we would like it to end, but we will reflect on this team for years to come.”