Building up a lead that reached over 40 points at times, the Lee men's basketball team improved to 4-0 on the young season with a convincing 105-74 victory over rival Tennessee Temple on Thursday night in Walker Arena.
The Flames scored 46 points in the opening 20 minutes and held Temple to just 21 and built on the margin early in the second stanza. Coach Tommy Brown used all 11 players that were dressed out and all 11 entered the scoring column.
Lee went to the free-throw line 50 times in a contest that was dominated by fouls. The Flames converted 42 of the charity tosses for 84 percent. Senior Cory Billingsley was 9-of-9 from the line and finished with 17 points. However, it was newcomer Chase Cullen who took top scoring honors for the game. He hit 10-of-13 freebies and totaled 20 points.
Four other Lee players reached double figures. Tyquan Roberts had a strong first half and finished with 13 markers. Stedmon Ford played a solid all-around game and tallied 12 points while dishing off six assists. Jervon Johnson followed with 11, while freshman Isaac Merrian entered double figures with 10 and freshman teammate Levi Woods countered with nine points and five rebounds.
For the game, the Flames shot a blistering 63 percent from the field, making 30-of-48 attempts. The visiting Crusaders pressed the entire game and Lee only attempted five 3-pointers and converted three. The Flames dominated the glass by an overwhelming 43-18 margin. Billingsley was also the Flames' leading rebounder with seven. Roberts, Jamal Worthington, Elgrin Wilson, Woods and Cullen pulled down five boards apiece.
Worthington was injured and had to be taken to a local hospital for x-rays. "He injured the lower part of his back with a hard fall," noted coach Brown. "Of course, we will not know the extent of his injury until early on Friday morning but the injury is not serious I know he's going to be awfully sore."
Brown was not pleased with his team's defensive effort in the second half. "We got after them pretty good in the first half but started trading baskets midway of the second half and I hate that," admitted the coach.
The Flames held the visitors to only 21 percent shooting in the first 20 minutes but the Crusaders came back and shot 47 percent in the final half and finished with a 35 percent shooting mark from the field. They attempted 29 free throws and hit 21. The Crusaders fired up 26 3-point shots and made nine. They hit only 15 p recent of their treys in the opening 20 minutes but came back to nail 7-of-13 in the second half.
The Crusaders had only one player in double figures and most of those points came in the final minutes behind the shooting of Emmanuel Rounds (15 points). Bryan Jones followed with nine and no Temple player had more than three rebounds. Cameron High was the leader in that department.
The Flames will put their unbeaten mark on the line on Monday at 7 p.m. when unbeaten Milligan College visits Walker Arena for a non-conference contest.
