MOBILE, Ala. - The Lee men's basketball team completed a sweep of Auburn Montgomery and the University of Mobile on Saturday evening by defeating the host and previously undefeated Rams, 67-55.
Red-hot shooting by Chase Dunn in the opening minutes and an eight straight point surge by Will Barnes midway in the second half sparked the Flames to a 17 point lead at 10:52 mark, their biggest of the game. Mobile led only once early in the first half by a single point.
The win pushes the surging Flames to 7-0 overall and more importantly 2-0 in Southern States Athletic Conference play. Mobile drops to 3-1 and 1-1 in conference action.
Coach Tommy Brown called the weekend sweep "huge" for his Flames. "It took another entire team effort," he noted. "We had to use three big men against their post players. Pat (Shaughnessy) fouled out. Big Steve (Bennett) had four fouls and so did (Muniru) Bawa. We had to push Chad (Lee) inside and he never backs away from anyone."
Barnes finished the contest with 20 points after scoring only five in the opening 20 minutes. Dunn totaled 16 and had only four points in the second stanza. "If those two ever put two good halves together, it would really be something," commented Brown.
Once again, Chad Lee was the rebounding leader with 11 and Bawa followed with five as the Flames out-rebounded the taller Rams 35-29. Lee also did an excellent job of taking care of the basketball, committing just 10 turnovers, the same as Mobile. Corey Billingsley had nine points and three rebounds, while Duran Blue posted eight markers and dished off three assists.
For the game the Flames shot a solid 50 percent overall from the field (26-of-52). They struggled somewhat from behind the arc, hitting just 3-of-10 but went to the line 16 times and canned 12.
The Lee defense held Mobile to just 28 percent shooting for the game. The Rams converted 5-of-16 treys and marched to the free-throw line 28 times, connecting on 20.
Chris Richardson paced the Mobile scoring with 14 points. Kwane Beard and Dominick Brumsfield had 11 apiece.
The Flames will have a long break, taking next week off for Thanksgiving and then return to action on Nov. 30th when they face another big weekend series, hosting Loyola (La.) and Spring Hill (Ala.).
