ROME, Ga. - Host Shorter University jumped out to a 23-14 advantage at the end of the first period and then the Lady Hawks' defense never allowed the Lee women's basketball team to get on track in posting a 57-46 victory on Thursday evening.
Shorter's Taylor Adams and Shakierya McClendon scored 43 of the Lady Hawks 57 points. Adams, who was held to only seven points in the loss to Lee on Jan. 16, had a huge effort in Thursday evening's game. She produced a double-double, 23 points and 16 rebounds. McClendon hit 7-of-13 shots from the field and 5-of-6 free throws in finishing with 20 points.
"This loss is on me," said coach Marty Rowe. "I guess we didn't do a good enough job of preparing our team for a Shorter team that is very good. We had no answer for Adams or McClendon the entire game."
On the offensive end the Lady Flames could never get in sync. Carrie Cheeks tossed in 13 points and grabbed nine rebounds to try to help spark the Lee offense. Shelby Brown also produced a double-double, 10 points and 11 rebounds, but no other Lady Flame had more than six points.
"Our forwards kept the game from really getting bad," pointed out Rowe. "We didn't get anything out of our guard play tonight. We just weren't ready to play and they spread our defense out and really did a good job. We never did what we were supposed to do the entire game. We knew we would have to come in and play at a high level tonight and that just didn't happen."
The Lady Flames shot only 27 percent from the field for the game. They fired up 23 3-point shots and converted only six. While Shorter was going to the free-throw line 21 times and making 15, the Lady Flames were awarded just eight charity tosses and cashed in on six.
Lee did win the rebounding battle, 45-40. Tori Lentz and Kayla Beavers had five rebounds each to help out Cheeks and Brown in that department. Christina Johnson, who was saddled with early foul problems, pulled down four boards.
The Lady Flames will have to wait until West Florida and Valdosta State meet on Saturday afternoon to know exactly where they will be headed for their quarter-final game in the Gulf South Conference Tournament. If West Florida wins as expected, Lee travel to Pensacola on Tuesday to face the Argonauts.
