Propelled by a well-played first half, the Lee women's basketball team jumped out to a 46-22 margin and then turned back a couple of second-half surges by visiting Young Harris College in posting a 79-63 victory on Thursday evening in Walker Arena.

"I thought we played outstanding basketball in the first two quarters, but I was really disappointed with our overall effort in the last two," remarked Lee coach Marty Rowe after his team improved to 2-1 on the year. "Our team is taught to play four quarters, not just two. I could see our concentration level had dropped in the opening minutes of the third quarter."

The Mountain Lions came out with renewed life in the third period and actually cut the Lady Flames' 25-point lead to only 14 points on a couple of occasions in the third and fourth quarters. Each time Young Harris battled back, the Lady Flames would get a key bucket from either Shelby Brown or Carrie Cheeks to extend their lead again. In fact, coach Rowe was able to clear his bench in the final 3-4 minutes of play.

Brown made 7-of-8 shots from the field and paced the Lee scoring with 19 points. She also collected five rebounds. Cheeks followed closely with 18 points and made 8-of-12 shots from the field. "They both played great," noted Rowe. "When we got the ball down inside, they were able to score. I thought Anna Woodford did an excellent of finding our open players." Woodford finished with nine points and five assists.

Erin Walsh followed with 11 points and made three treys. For the game, Lee connected on 6-of-15 attempts from behind the arc. Point guard Haris Price countered with eight points, five assists and the smallest player on the floor had four rebounds as the Lady Flames held a commanding 46-26 advantage on the glass. 

"We were still too loose with the basketball, especially in the last two quarters," explained Rowe. "Twenty-one turnovers is going to get you beat in a lot of basketball games." The Mountain Lions were charged with only 10 floor mistakes. 

Rowe commented that he was not taking anything away from Young Harris. "They really came out and battled us in the last two quarters."

But Lee's defense held Young Harris to only 36 percent shooting from the field. However, paced by the deadly shooting of Briana Bell, who connected on 6-of-8 3-pointers and finished with a game high 21 points, the Mountain Lions managed a couple of runs. Meredith Tarver, showing tremendous hustle, tallied 14 points and Jenny Vernet pitched in with eight points and seven rebounds.

Overall the Lady Flames shot 54 percent from the field. Like Young Harris, 15-of-24, Lee struggled somewhat at the line canning 19-of-28. The big winning margin came in points in the paint where the Lady Flames held a commanding 40-24 advantage. However, the Mountain Lions fought back and out-scored Lee 23-10 in points off turnovers.

The Lady Flames expect a much tougher challenge on Saturday when they host Bellarmine University (Louisville, Ky.) in the annual Jack South Classic. The contest is slated for 5 p.m. The Classic will continue at 7 p.m. when the Flames will go after their second win of the year against Carver College (Atlanta).