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Everything was clicking from start to finish for the Lee men's basketball as it scored an impressive 81-62 victory over No. 20 Alabama-Huntsville on Saturday evening inside Walker Arena.

The Flames jumped out to an 8-0 advantage and never looked back as they held the lead for the full 40 minutes en route to the Gulf South Conference (GSC) victory over the Chargers. The win moves Lee (9-2, 4-2) into a tie for first in conference. The Chargers (9-3, 4-2) dropped their second straight contest after jumping out to a 4-0 start in league play.

Three seniors led the way for the home team. Guard Cory Billingsley tallied a game-high 17 points on 6-of-9 shooting from the field. Forward Tyquan Roberts followed with 14 points and grabbed eight rebounds while Chad Lee had 11 boards to go along with eight markers.

"Chad is really focused on winning and finishing his career on a positive note," said head coach Tommy Brown. "Tonight was another step forward in reaching our goal of beating teams that we lost to twice last year."

Sophomore guards Stedmon Ford and Bryce Copeland made their impact felt. Ford had 10 points and dished five assists while committing just one turnover in the contest. Bryce Copeland, who continues his comeback from a toe injury, added 11 points and canned three treys off the bench.

"Obviously we are a much better team when Stedmon pushes the ball forward like he did tonight," added Brown. "I thought he played an outstanding game. Our shot selection was very good for the most part and we showed again tonight that we can out tough just about anyone we play."

Lee held a slim 32-27 lead at the halftime break as they limited the Chargers to just 34.5 percent shooting (10-of-29) in the opening period. While the defense set the tone early the offense opened things up in the second half as the Flames hit a sizzling 16-of-27 (59.3 percent) from the field in while outscoring the visitors 49-35 to cruise to the 19-point victory.

The Chargers had just one player score in double-figures as Taylor Chapman gave his club a lift off the bench with 14 points. Preston Herring had nine markers and pulled down 11 rebounds.

Brown's squad held a 38-31 advantage on the glass and committed just 10 turnovers while forcing the Chargers into 14 floor mistakes. Lee dominated down low outscoring UAH 28-16 in the paint.

Both teams shot the ball well from behind the arc. Lee hit 44 percent and Alabama Huntsville shot 37.9 percent from 3-point distance. Sharpshooter Jervon Johnson hit a game-high four triples for the Flames to help account for 12 of his 14 points.

"My assistant Ryan Ross did an excellent job preparing this game plan and deserves his share of credit for this victory," noted Brown. "Huntsville is a very good team and we knew we would have to play well to beat them. After a tough game Thursday night against North Alabama we did light work this morning and took yesterday off to make sure we were ready to play tonight."

Lee has now won three-straight and are 6-1 on the home court at Walker Arena. After a two week break for the Christmas holiday the Flames will reconvene for home dates with West Georgia (Jan. 3) and Delta State (Jan. 5) to open up the 2015 portion of the schedule.