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There's no place like home for the Lee women's basketball team as it extended its winning streak at Paul Dana Walker Arena to 13-straight games with an 80-72 victory over North Alabama on Thursday evening.

The Lady Flames bounced back from two road defeats last week to improve their record to 6-2 overall and 3-2 in the Gulf South Conference (GSC). The loss drops the Lions to 5-3 and an even 2-2 in conference play.

Hot shooting keyed the Lee victory as they finished a sizzling 32-of-51 (62.7 percent) from the field in the contest. Freshman Shelby Brown paced the offensive attack with a game-high 24 points on 11-of-16 shooting. Brown added seven rebounds and played a huge role in the home team outscoring North Alabama 48-18 in the paint.

The balanced Lee squad featured three other players in double-figure scoring. Erin Walsh tallied 13 markers, Emileigh Swafford chipped in 11 and senior point guard Alex Swope registered 10 points and dished off eight assists.  

"Alex Swope is playing like the player we thought we were recruiting last year. Madison Lee did some good things that will not show up in the box score and Brown is starting to play the way we knew she could," said head coach Marty Rowe.
 
The Lions were led by Jessica Brown who was on fire from 3-point land (7-of-9) to finish with 23 points. Jennifer Towne added 14 and pulled down six rebounds while Mekena Randle scored 12.

The stingy Lee defense held the Alabama club to just 37.7 percent shooting (20-of-53). The Lady Flames held an advantage on the glass winning the rebounding battle by a 34-25 margin. Rowe's club dished off 21 assists and committed 14 turnovers. The Lions finished with 12 assists and were guilty of 11 floor mistakes.

"We really needed to have three days of good practice and we did. We worked a lot on the pick and roll and you can see the results," added Rowe. "Over the past two weeks we have been hampered by the final exams, sickness and injuries. We were not able to practice a great deal until this week."
 
The two teams bounced back and forth for most of the first half until a technical foul call seemed to turn the tables. Up 31-26 the North Alabama bench was hit with the technical foul leading to a 13-2 run by the Lady Flames to close out the first half with a 39-33 advantage.

"Both teams played awfully well and North Alabama has a very talented squad," said Rowe. "We've got to go right back to work tomorrow and get ready for another good team on Saturday. There are no easy wins in this league."
 
Lee will finish up the pre-Christmas slate with a Saturday home matchup against Alabama-Huntsville. Tip time is set for 5 p.m. Anyone who brings two food items to Saturday's games will receive free admission. The food will be donated to the Lee University Food Bank.