Lee University's Lady Flames will be making a return trip to Winona Lakes (Ind.) for the NCCAA National Tournament. Lee defeated Tennessee Temple 84-57 on Friday evening in claiming the NCCAA Mid-East Region Championship.

The win was No. 20 for coach Marty Rowe's club. They will take only eight losses into the national event. Tennessee Temple barring a miracle has played its last college basketball game. The University announced it will close its doors at the end of spring semester.

Emileigh Swafford, who was not able to participate in the region tournament, was still named the Player of the Year in the Mid-East Region. She was joined on the first team by Erin Walsh. Alex Swope and Christina Johnson were named to the second team and coach Rowe was selected as the Mid-East Coach of the Year.

Friday evening's victory was paced by an outstanding performance by Shelby Brown who recorded a double-double, 29 points and 13 rebounds. Many of the points were set up by point guard Alex Swope who tied Fallon Lee's assist record with 12. For the two-game tournament, Swope registered 23 assists. "When your two point guards combine for 19 assists (Jordan Neuharth dished off seven) you can overlook a few too many turnovers," noted Rowe. "It was not one of our cleanest games but the effort was certainly there.

Erin Walsh was blistering hot in the first half, knocking down four 3-pointers and recording all 18 of her points. Carrie Cheeks missed a double-double by only one rebound. She poured in 18 points and grabbed nine rebounds. Johnson also posted nine rebounds. All totaled, the Lady Flames out-rebounded the Lady Crusaders by a whopping 62-37. They also out-scored the visitors 52-20 in points in the paint.

Lee finished the night by shooting 47 percent from the field but struggled a bit from behind the arc (6-of-23) and from the free-throw line, 12-of-21. They also committed a few more turnovers (22) than coach Rowe would have liked. Temple was paced by 18 points from Amanda Rector. However, 14 of her 18 points came in the first 20 minutes.

Walsh was assigned the duty of guarding the Temple standout in the second half. Bree Smith was 11-of-14 from the free-throw line and finished with 15 points, while Angel Foster tossed in 13 points and garnered nine rebounds.

The Lee defense held the Lady Crusaders to only 25 percent shooting from the floor. They made just 3-of-22 treys but knocked down 18-of-25 freebies.

"It is great to be going back to the national tournament," said Coach Rowe. "This team has had to overcome a lot of adversity and we have had to almost revamp the entire team. Swope and Neuharth blended right in with our newcomers to help make them better. I'm really proud of this team. I've said several times it is a great group of girls to work with."

National tournament play which will involve both Lee men and women's teams is scheduled to begin on March 18 on the campus of Grace College. The tournament pairings will be announced next week.