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PENSACOLA, Fla. – With wins on the road difficult to come by in the balanced Gulf South Conference (GSC) the Lee men's basketball team enjoyed an especially sweet victory on Saturday afternoon as they traveled to West Florida and defeated the Argonauts, 68-64.

The Flames and West Florida sat knotted at 62 with 1:30 remaining in regulation before Lee turned to veteran Cory Billingsley for a two-point bucket and used clutch free throws from Stedmon Ford and Billingsley down the stretch to register the key road win and move to 7-2 overall and 2-2 in conference play. The loss drops the Argonauts to 5-5 and 1-3 in the GSC.

"We had another play drawn up coming out of the last timeout but I decided after we broke the huddle that we wanted the ball in Cory's hands with the game on the line," said Lee head coach Tommy Brown. "Stedmon also played very well and was out there for 35 minutes because Cope (Bryce Copeland) continues to battle back from his toe injury."

Billingsley finished with 14 points to go along with five rebounds in the contest. Jervon Johnson continued his solid play of late with 14 points in 30 minutes of work and Chase Cullen provided a lift off the bench with nine points and four boards.

The two clubs exchanged punches throughout the contest as neither team led by more than eight. The Flames and the Argos were tied at 30-30 at the halftime break.

"This was probably our best performance in a couple of years," said Brown. "West Florida is big and strong. They look like outside linebackers out there. I thought we did a great job of battling tough all game and we wanted to come out and play well on the road early in conference play."

Ford led all-scorers with 16 points, dished off four assists and grabbed six rebounds. The sophomore point guard went 7-of-8 from the foul line.

"It's unusual to outshoot a team from the foul line on the road but that was a big plus for us," added Brown. The Flames went to the line 23 times and converted 17. The Argonauts had just 14 attempts and made nine.

After big men Tyquan Roberts and Elgrin Wilson were held scoreless in the first half the duo rallied in the second period and combined for 11 points. Roberts ended with five points while Wilson added six. "I challenged them both at halftime and I thought they responded nicely to give us a needed lift in the second half," noted Brown.

As a team Lee hit 23-of-50 (46 percent) from the field while West Florida shot 40.3 percent from the field going 25-for-62. The Flames held a slim 36-35 advantage on the glass. Brown's squad committed 12 turnovers compared to eight floor mistakes by West Florida.

Terrance Townes came off the bench and delivered 15 points and six rebounds for the home team. Tyler Funk also tossed in 15 points and notched six boards. Erin Straughn and Lendward Griffin chipped in 11 markers respectively.

The Flames now hold a 2-1 advantage over West Florida in the all-time series after splitting the two matchups last season. Lee claimed its first conference road victory of the year after waiting until the season finale to complete such a feat last season.

Lee will head back to Walker Arena on Thursday to host North Alabama at 8 p.m. The Flames close out the pre-Christmas slate with a Saturday afternoon contest against Alabama-Huntsville.