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CLINTON, Miss. - The Lee women's basketball team started fast and never looked back en route to a 66-44 drubbing of Mississippi College on Monday evening.

The Lady Flames fired out of the gates and jumped out to a 23-9 advantage to help take a 35-17 lead into the halftime break. The second half was more of the same as the Lady Choctaws had no answer for the balanced scoring attack and smothering defense of Lee.

"We played really well in the first half," said head coach Marty Rowe. "We got huge minutes off the bench with us getting into foul trouble. Christina (Johnson) played big and Caroline (Smith) stepped up and gave us 11 great minutes in the first half."

Kayla Beavers led the way for the Lady Flames with 12 points. The sharpshooting junior did all of her damage from behind the arc finishing 4-of-8. Freshmen Emileigh Swafford and Shelby Brown followed with 11 points each. Brown would add three boards and had two blocked shots.

Johnson had just six points but set a school record with 16 rebounds, including seven on the offense end as she dominated in the paint. Erin Walsh made it four-players in double-figures with 10 points. The freshman guard had four rebounds and five steals in the contest.

The stingy Lee defense held Mississippi College to just 31.9 percent shooting (15-of-47). The Lady Choctaws were just 1-of-7 from 3-point range. Lee forced 28 turnovers and were guilty of 16.

"Hopefully we can use this and grow from it to learn what it takes to win on the road," said Rowe. "It's a good win tonight and we did a great job holding them to 44 points tonight."

The Lady Flames hit 37.3 percent from the field and were 8-of-21 from downtown. Lee held a big advantage in bench scoring holding a commanding 25-8 edge.

"We needed a win on the road," said Rowe. "We are young team but I expect us to continue to get better and make the right decisions late in games and I'm proud of our effort tonight."

AnnMarie Harris led the home team with 14 points and pulled down seven rebounds.  Ashley Minor pitched in 13 points and three steals.

The win moves Lee to 9-4 overall and 6-4 in league play. The loss drops Mississippi College to an even 7-7 and 3-7 in its first year in the Gulf South Conference.

The Lady Flames will continue their five-game road trip on Thursday when they travel to Rome, Ga. to battle rival Shorter University. Tip time is set for 6 p.m.