Led by a 26 point output from freshman Emileigh Swafford the Lee women's basketball team defeated a pesky Tennessee Temple team, 80-64 on Thursday night in Walker Arena.

The Lady Flames held a slim six-point advantage heading into the halftime break but used stingy defense and timely offense to pull away from the Lady Crusaders in the second half. Lee limited the visitors to just nine field goals in the final 20 minutes while outscoring Temple 37-27

In addition to the offense performance from Swafford the guard also made her presence felt on the defensive end with five steals and a pair of blocks. Freshman forward Carrie Cheeks came off the bench and finished with 17 points and seven boards on 8-of-12 shooting from the field in the contest. Freshman guard Erin Walsh added 12 points, four rebounds and two assists.

"I thought that Swafford started off slow in the second half and we pulled her out and talked with her and she came break and played great the rest of the way," said Rowe. "It was really good to see Carrie (Cheeks) come around tonight. She played her best game by far and was a force down low."

Lee dominated in the paint outscoring the Lady Crusaders 34-18. The Lady Flames held a slim 53-49 advantage on the glass but used 11 steals and eight blocks to help stifle the Temple offense. The home team turned 19  turnovers into 26 points while the visitors managed only seven points off Lee's 17 turnovers.

"I think our point guards are starting to adjust to their roles and doing a good job of getting us into our offense," added Rowe. "We still foul way too much and it appears through the first few games that the hand-checking is being called much closer this year than it was last year."

The whistles were blowing frequently against both teams on Thursday. Lee earned 40 foul shots but convert just 25 (62.5 percent). Temple shot 27 freebies and made 15 (55 percent).

Rowe's club shot 41 percent from the field but for the second game in a row his team struggled from behind the arc hitting 5-of-24 treys (21 percent). The Lady Crusaders shot the ball well in the first half (13-of-29) but fizzled down the stretch and ended just 22-of-72 (30 percent) for the game.

Temple was led by Amanda Rector who scored 20 points while grabbing eight rebounds. Kristina Pumpure and Bree Smith added 11 points and Angel Foster rounded out the double-figure scoring with 10 points.

"This was by far the best Temple team that we've seen since I've been here at Lee," acknowledged Rowe.

With the victory the Lady Flames move to 2-0 on the year and own a commanding 31-2 advantage over the Chattanooga club in the all-time series. The loss drops the Lady Crusaders to 2-2 on the young season.

Lee will now gear up for its third game in six days as they welcome Brescia University to Walker Arena for a Saturday Matinee at 2 p.m. The game will be a part of the annual Jack Souther Classic, honoring the memory of the great former Lee women's basketball and men's golf coach.