ROME, Ga. - A valiant effort by the Lee men came up short against an extremely athletic Shorter University team on Thursday evening in a Gulf South Conference basketball contest in the Winthrop-King Centre.
The Flames went on a 12-0 run midway of the second half and grabbed a 55-54 lead but the Hawks regrouped and behind four straight free throws by Jordan Jacks in the final 60 seconds secured the hard-fought 79-76 victory over the visiting Lee club.
Shorter took advantage of 21 turnovers by the Flames and outscored coach Tommy Brown's club 24-8 in points off floor mistakes. "You just can't make mistakes against a club like Shorter," noted Brown after his Flames dropped to 9-7 overall and 4-6 in conference play. "Shorter turns mistakes into points and that's the type of basketball they play. They are willing to gamble on defense because of their quickness, speed and athletic ability."
The Hawks moved out to a 35-31 halftime advantage. The hotly contested affair was tied 12 times and featured 10 lead changes. "If you had told me we would out-rebound Shorter by 10 (42-32) and still get beat, I would have thought you were joking," pointed out Brown. "We knew coming in that we had to take care of the basketball but we got careless at times and they made us pay."
Jacks was listed as a 50 percent free-throw shooter in the Hawks statistics but on this night he stepped to the line and converted 8-of-8. He was also 7-of-12 from the field and finished with a game high 22 points. Trevor McDade came off the bench to score 16 points, while the balanced Hawks got 13 points from Travis Jones and 10 points each from Chris Daniels and Dedric Ware. "Again, I thought if we could hold Ware's scoring down that we would have a good chance to win," admitted Brown. "He is averaging over 20 per game and we held him to half that mark."
The Flames had four players reach double-figure scoring. Tyquan Roberts was the leader with 15 points and eight rebounds. Cory Billingsley had an off-night shooting the basketball but still managed 13 points and grabbed six rebounds. Chase Cullen followed with 12 points and five rebounds. Elgrin Wilson chipped in with 10 points. Chad Lee hit three 3's and tallied nine points, while garnering five rebounds. Jervon Johnson tallied three more treys and finished with nine markers, while Stedmon Ford tallied eight points and found a way to claim six rebounds.
"Chad (Lee) was a true floor leader for us tonight," praised Brown. "He gave us a badly needed effort and turned in a solid defensive effort. We just can't seem to make the big buckets and get over the hump late in the game. I certainly fault our kids for the effort. They played their hearts out again tonight."
Take away the turnovers and some key missed free throws and Brown's unit could have walked away with three rugged road wins. After all, they shot 44 percent from the field and 37 percent from behind the arc. However, 65 percent from the free-throw stripe and 21 floor mistakes were just too much to overcome.
The Hawks shot an even better 48 percent from the field but were held to just 25 percent from 3-point range. They made the best of 22 charity tosses, canning 18. Shorter stayed in the thick of the GSC standings, improving to 12-5 overall and 7-4 in league play.
Things will not get any easier for the Flames in the rugged Gulf South Conference. They will return to action next Thursday, traveling to Jackson, Tenn. and facing a Union University team that is right in the thick of the chase for top honors in the GSC. One week from Saturday, Lee will travel to Memphis and conclude a five-game road stretch against Memphis Christian Brothers.
