WINONA LAKE, Ind. – Deadly 3-point shooting and excellent defensive play led the way as Emmanuel College exploded midway of the second half en route to a 78-65 victory over the Lee men on Saturday morning.
The win gave the Lions (21-11) a third-place finish in the NCCAA National Championships and forced the Flames (18-14) to settle for fourth place.
Emmanuel led 36-33 at the half and the contest was still close midway of the second stanza before the Lions unleashed a 3-point attack led by Steven Guinchard and Michael Stanley. All totaled, five different Lion players scored 3-point buckets and for the game they made 15-of-33 attempts.
Luke Miller, who made 4-of-8 treys, paced the Lions with 17 points. Jeremy Burgess canned three 3s and tallied 14 points. Stanley added 13 points and eight rebounds. Guinchard bombed in four treys for his 12 markers and Kurtis Robinson followed with a pair of 3s. He totaled 10 markers and grabbed five rebounds.
"They are a good team and did a lot of good things," noted coach Tommy Brown in his conversation about the Lions. "I'm proud of the way we came out and played in the early going. We have never been a good team that plays well in early games. I'm also proud of Cory Billingsley and Chad Lee. They are two outstanding seniors who have been with me for four years and represent us well on the court and in the classroom."
Billingsley, who was named a NCCAA All-American, finished his Lee career with 18 points and will rank with Lee's all-time top scorers. Chase Cullen topped off an outstanding season with 16 points and seven rebounds. Chad Lee paced the Flames, who were out-rebounded 33-32, with eight boards. Stedmon Ford followed with nine and had six rebounds, while Stephan Burrows tallied all eight of his points in the second half. He also added two assists.
While Emmanuel was shooting 45 percent from both the field and 3-point range, Lee was able to shoot only 39 percent from the field and made just 5-of-15 3s for 33 percent. The Flames were awarded 20 free throws and converted 15. However, they committed 16 turnovers to only nine for Emmanuel, a team that had an impressive 21 assists.
"We had a solid season and got better as the year progressed," commented Brown. "We are going to go out and work at finding some post players. I feel like overall we have a good group of young players to build around."
