LAKELAND, Fla. - Facing the sixth-ranked team in the country the Lee women's basketball team lost to Florida Southern College, 61-45 in the GSC/SSC Conference Challenge on Saturday afternoon.

The young Lady Flames fired out of the gate and led 22-14 after the end of the first period. Carrie Cheeks scored five of her six points and grabbed two of her three total rebounds in the quarter despite just playing three minutes due to foul trouble.

The top ranked Mocs (2-0) answered back in the second quarter outscoring Lee, 16-7 and used a pair of free throws from Jensen Blassage right before the half to grab their first lead at 30-29.

The second half belong to the home team as FSC took advantage of Cheeks being in foul trouble to post a 31-16 advantage in the final 20 minutes.

"Florida Southern is a really good basketball team and they're top ranked for a reason. We've been playing a NCAA D2 schedule for four years now and that is as good of a team as we have seen," said head coach Marty Rowe.

Freshman point guard Lindsey Roddy was the leading scorer for the Lady Flames with eight points. Another freshman Maddie Long had six points and three boards. Abby Bertram, another fantastic first-year player, had six points, five rebounds and swiped a pair of steals.

"I thought we did a good job especially in the first quarter of controlling the game. We led for all of the opening quarter and most of the entire first half," noted Rowe. "Not being able to take that lead into halftime seemed to deflate us a bit. I thought the biggest key was Carrie getting into foul trouble early which put us on our heels on both ends of the court. You've got to give them credit though because they made some nice adjustments in the second half."

Blassage was 6 of 9 from the field for 16 points to go along with five rebounds to pace the Mocs. Anja Fuchs-Robetin did a little bit of everything with 14 points, eight rebounds and four assists. 

"They're an older, veteran club and that really stood out down the stretch. I think today our youth showed especially when we got into some pressure spots late in the contest," said Rowe. It's a great learning opportunity for us against a fantastic opponent but we can take a lot of positives out this game and we will be ready to go on Wednesday."

The Lady Flames (1-1) will head back on the hardwood as they travel to take on Young Harris College out of the Peach Belt Conference on Wednesday. Lee returns home on Saturday against Brescia for a 5 p.m. tip.