Box Score
A couple of huge surges allowed Lee to pull away from visiting Tennessee Wesleyan late in the first half and again early in the second 20 minutes as the Flames improved to 2-0 with a convincing 92-72 victory.
Playing in the nightcap of the Jack Souther Classic, the Flames led by only one point, 27-26 with some six remaining in the first half but went on a quick 9-0 run to turn away a Bulldog rally. Lee went on to claim a 46-34 advantage at the halfway mark.
The Flames exploded again midway of the second stanza and moved out to a 61-44 advantage only to see TWC cut the margin to 13 points. Coach Tommy Brown, who later admitted the Bulldogs gave him a scare with the run, quickly ordered a timeout and his Flames proceeded to salt the victory away.
"I guess you could say we had too much depth for them tonight," said Brown. "Wesleyan has a couple of key players out of the lineup and we were able to go 10-12 players deep for much of the game."
Junior Corey Billingsley helped power the victory. He finished the contest with 24 points and grabbed eight rebounds. He was 8-of-9 from the free-throw line and 7-of-13 from the field. "Corey has a way of taking the contact and moving on to score," noted Brown. "There is nothing fancy about it and some of our other players need to see the way he finishes.
Three other Flames scored in double figures. Tyquan Roberts had 13 points. Stedmon Ford and Jervon Johnson tallied 12 apiece. Chad Lee connected on 3-of-4 3-point attempts and nine points, while Valentino Thomas also had nine markers and collected five rebounds.
Jay Marquette paced Lee's rebounding with nine as the Flames out-boarded the Bulldogs 46-31. The Flames shot a solid 50 percent from the field, 42 percent from 3-point range and made 22-of-28 free throws. They out-scored TWC in points off the bench, 39-21. Wesleyan shot 41 percent from the field and made just 6-of-21 from behind the arc (29 percent). They converted 10-of-17 charity attempts.
Coach Brown found one key negative in the victory. He was not pleased with his club's 24 turnovers. "We got too loose with the basketball when we had the lead," he pointed out. "We will have to take better care of the basketball when we move into play against Gulf South teams and Division II opponents."
Wesleyan had four players in double figures. They were led by Dante Turnipseed, who came off the bench to score 21 points. Tyler Burse had a double-double, 18 points and 11 rebounds. Devante Jenkins followed with 16 points and Andrew Scofield added 12.
The Flames will have a quick turn around as they will return to Walker Arena and face long-time rival Bryan College on Tuesday at 7 p.m.
