CLEVELAND, Miss. – Host Delta State turned back several late charges by a never-say-die Lee men's basketball team in posting a 73-61 victory over the visiting Flames on Thursday evening.
Time and again the Flames, as they have done in recent weeks, pushed their opponents for almost the entire 40 minutes before failing to get over the hump and suffering another tough Gulf South Conference defeat.
Freshman Ryan Montgomery and senior Rico Overall led the charge for the Flames. Montgomery finished with a career-high 21 points, 17 of the markers coming in an outstanding second half performance. He also battled for five rebounds. Overall finished with 17 points, four assists and five rebounds.
"Ryan had a great game and was really aggressive tonight," said Lee coach Bubba Smith. "They doubled Keevin (Tyus) hard the entire game and Ryan found ways to attack and help keep us in the game. I also thought Rico played well tonight. He not only scored, but rebounded well and he found his teammates and played with great poise."
The surge by Montgomery and Overall was not enough to combat the play of Delta State's All-American Devin Schmidt and PJ Davis. Schmidt poured in 27 points to go along with six assists and seven rebounds. Davis stepped inside the paint and scored 19 markers to go along with nine boards.
Still Lee had opportunities to possibly pull off the upset but missed free throws cost dearly. The Flames went to the line 19 times and were able to convert only seven. "We missed some timely free throws that could have kept us in the game," said Coach Smith. "We had some great looks down the stretch that we needed to make that could have possibly helped us pull out the win. Some nights that's how it goes, but you have to find other ways to win and we really have a hard time digging in and getting stops when it matters."
While the Flames were shooting 40 percent from the field and making 8-of-29 3-pointers, Delta State were shooting a solid 50 percent from the field but Lee's defense held the Statesmen to only 4-of-19 from beyond the arc. Delta State pulled down 10 offensive rebounds and outrebounded the Flames 42-30 overall. Lee had only 10 turnovers and forced DSU into 14 floor mistakes.
"I thought our guys really executed our game plan and kept Delta State off balance and out of their offensive rhythm most the night," pointed out Smith. "They really hurt us from the 3-point line at our place and we wanted to make them beat us in other ways."
With the victory, the Statesmen improved to 16-6 overall and 11-5 in GSC play. The Flames slipped to 9-13 and 5-11. "We have to find ways to continue to improve down the stretch," concluded the Lee coach. "We are running out of time and opportunities but we can certainly make a run these next few games. Our guys will keep working and fighting, I know that."
